UAB Moves Forward While Lindsay-Martin Waits

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 25, 2026

The clock continues to tick while KyeRon Lindsay-Martin continues to wait on the final decision of whether he can play college basketball for one final season.

Lindsay-Martin continues to work with his UAB basketball teammates just as he’s done for more than three months. He’s taking classes and has done everything that each member of the UAB basketball team was asked to do since beginning summer practice in June. He’s one of several UAB players a little banged up right now and the 6-foot-8, 222-pound Texas native, who attended three different colleges before coming to UAB last season, spent a good part of Thursday’s practice working out on the side.

“I give him credit,” UAB head coach Andy Kenneday said while meeting with the media before Thursday’s practice. “He wants to be here. He's been with us all summer. He would have had professional opportunities abroad. He's in school. He's never missed a beat. I can tell it’s weighing on him. It's weighing on me because it’s hard for all of us to even understand. We're one type team with him. Without him, we would honestly schematically have to do a number of different things. We're getting closer, as I just said, to D-Day. We start this thing November 2nd (against McNeese State), which is right around the corner. I would like to be able to start forming a more solid identity. But until we understand whether or not he's with us or not, that really determines it. So it's weighed on me and it's made my job challenging but I can see it weighing on him. He believes in what we're doing and he's got confidence in the powers that be and we hope that it all works.”

Lindsay-Martin played at the University of Georgia during the first semester of his true freshman season and spent a year each at Texas Tech and Murray State. He played in 28 games with four starts last season at UAB, averaging 10.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and just under one blocked shot per game. Earlier this summer, Lindsay-Martin said he was fighting for another year at UAB because “I kind of found my basketball spirit back here.”

Lindsay-Martin was granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the NCAA in a Birmingham court in late August, allowing at the time a fifth year of eligibility. The TRO expired two weeks later but the fight continues.

“We're still working with the NCAA,” Kennedy said. “We're not even really attacking the five for five, which he would qualify for. That's what's in the news. You know, he's a class of '22 guy that's played four years and he didn't get the fifth year. That’s what you see in lawsuits across the country. We're not even fighting that. We're fighting the fact that his freshman year at Georgia, we're trying to get a medical hardship based on a lot of external circumstances and that takes a lot of documentation. We feel like we've made major progress. They're still asking questions that we have to come up with the answers to get a final ruling.”

Kennedy said there is a “huge difference” in his team’s roster without Lindsay-Martin but that’s not the only reason he’s waited and worked through the process instead of just filling the spot with somebody new.

“Because I think it's the right thing to do,” Kennedy said. “Honestly, that's what it came down to, I felt like he deserved the opportunity. Again, there's two bites of the apple there. We're still trying to go through the system and then there's the five-year bite that a lot of people are chewing on, pardon the pun. For us, I just felt like it was the right thing to do. He wanted to come back. I wanted him to come back. I felt like from a maturity standpoint, from an experience standpoint, from a leadership standpoint, he was our best option and we're gonna fight it till the end.”

The situation with Lindsay-Martin’s eligibility was just one subject that Kennedy touched on before his team’s fourth official practice. He talked about his team but also discussed life as UAB’s athletic director and talked about where the search for a permanent AD stands.

On the first week of official practice: “Yeah, it's the first week of practice, official practice. It seems so different. I remember back in the day, you know, the old Midnight Madness. You’re so young, you don’t even remember this, the old Midnight Madness days, where you’d play at midnight from October 14th transitioning into the 15th because that was the first official day that you could actually practice. It was the first time that you would see your head coach in weeks, if not months. Then it would be about a six-week gauntlet leading up to the first game because back in those days, first games were tipping off right around Thanksgiving. Now, all that's changed.

I've had my kids 13 weeks, so the newness of it being official practice, even thodugh we have a larger amount of time to do our work, it's just continuing to try to build habits and an identity. We've been a little banged up, which is concerning for me because we haven't been at full capacity now for about a week and a half. So we're just trying to be patient, get guys back when we can, work with our young guys, get reps. I've been really pleased with this group's capacity for work. I've been really pleased with this group's attentiveness. I've been really pleased with this group's competitive nature. I like our pieces, we just got to get back healthy.”

On the difference in his team since the first day of summer practice: “Completely. Of our 13 scholarship players, 11 of them are newcomers. We're returning Salim (London) and then the KyeRon (Lindsay-Martin) situation still has not been resolved since the last time we talked. We've made some progress, we feel, so hopefully a resolution is sooner rather than later. So you've got 11 new guys and you're just trying to figure out who can do what, how to coach them, how to figure out what their strengths are and play to those strengths. I've been really pleased again with the overall competitive nature of the group and the fact that to a man, I think they've all improved.”

On Salim London: “I love Salim. I've always said this, that I think typically you see the greatest improvement in players between years one and two, whether that be freshman to sophomore or junior to senior as it relates to the junior college kids. And in Kye-Ron's case, I think it would be the same from a fourth-year guy to a fifth-year guy. We were his fourth school and again, we hope to have him back this season. But Salim has gotten stronger. He's changed his body. He's just operating more efficiently and I think he has now a much better understanding of what to anticipate day in and day out. We put him through a gauntlet of physical activities. I've got a new strength coach, Lamine Diaby-Gassama, who's been terrific, and he's got a physical profile for each kid. It's ironic that I was just reading some of these things this morning, and Salim has a great capacity for work. He's a guy that can operate at a high level for an extended period of time and I'm seeing that on the court. I think it'll show in his play this year.”

On whether this is his deepest backcourt in his time at UAB: “You know what? I don't know. I was born in Mississippi, but I've got a Show-Me state mentality. Until you do it in the real games, Coach Bartow used to say, ‘We'll learn when the popcorn's popping.’ And he's right because a lot of guys can do it out here (on the practice court), man. It's like we're on the driving range. Let's see how we do when we get on that green when there's people watching.

I think from a talent standpoint, from a versatility standpoint, it could be the best. I started thinking back. We've had some great guards here, highlighted obviously by Jelly Walker and the things that he was able to do. But my third year here, the team that won 29 games, the most wins in the history of the program, was probably the deepest backcourt we had. We had Jelly, we had Eric Gaines, we had Tavin Lovan, we had Ledarrius Brewer. Butta Johnson was a freshman. We still had Tony Toney, who was back in my office yesterday. So I was thinking back on these things and that was a pretty deep back court.

But from an experience standpoint, you know, starting with Salim, the only returner, but you've got a fifth-year guy in Justyn Fernandez. You've got a guy in Deuce Jones that was the A-10 Freshman of the Year. You've got a guy in Elijah Duval that was the WAC Freshman of the Year. Got a guy in TJ Caldwell, who's a fifth-year senior, started out in the SEC, not to mention some other pieces. So I think we have a chance to have an outstanding backcourt.”

On balancing the interim AD duties with getting ready for the season: “You know what? It's been like, my daughters do this to me all the time. Now they're older, so I don't see them as often, but they throw me in the middle of the situation and say, ‘Daddy, fix it.’ Which I think is the role of the dad. You're trying to fix it. But I'd like to know some of the variables. What are you asking me to fix? I don't know. I feel like that a little bit as (the interim AD). I'm being brought things that they want my opinion and I appreciate that, but I have no idea what you're talking about.  I mean, grass is not growing over here what are we gonna do? I mean just some bizarre things. I pride myself in trying to understand. So I've spent a lot more time trying to understand some variables that I've been presented with. I’ve got a great team. Dr. Watts has been really supportive in giving me a lot of support from his internal people. So they take a lot of these things off my plate. But it still is challenging and I've got to remember there's certain times that I really want to dig in because I want to do a good job in this interim (role) on a number of fronts. I want to make sure that all the sports feel supported and they've all got daily problems. It's just part of the dynamic.

I want to make sure that I give that proper time and energy. But then my day job's pretty consuming as well. We're about two weeks away from scrimmaging another opponent and then we're about a month away from playing Vanderbilt and then five weeks away from playing Ole Miss, and then six weeks away from starting this thing. It'll catch up to us real, real quick. But I'm trying to balance it as best I can. It's a labor of love for me. I, I want to do a good job in both capacities.”

On difficulty of player development in the transfer portal era: “It's been challenging. You know, it would be the best way I would determine it. It's just been challenging. Certain guys learn certain ways and everybody's going to come at it differently. So number one, you've got to try to figure out their capacity for work. That's what we try to do in the summer. Let's figure out what these guys' capacity for work is. And then let's figure out what they're really good at. I'm a believer in accentuating what you're good at. We obviously want to work on the deficiencies, but we want to keep the main thing, the main thing. If you're a fastball pitcher, let's throw a fastball, you know? I had to determine what we were good at and let's try to accentuate that while trying to work on the things that we're not. So we spend an inordinate amount of time on individual development and trying to get guys better. When we put these pieces of the puzzle together, we feel like they fit pretty well. This guy zigs while this guy zags. And I think collectively, we've got a team that can be fairly versatile.”

On whether it’s becoming easier to build a roster: “You know what? In my role as the AD and, and head coach, I've come to this conclusion. The answer is money. Now what's the question? We're in a different world now. I would say this, the Protect College Sports Act is in the headlines and it seems it's gaining some momentum. I think it's a good first step. I'm personally in favor of it. It's not perfect. There's never been a perfect bill. It's certainly not going to start with that one. But I think it's a step in the right direction. The transferring every single year is much more problematic than the money aspect. The money aspect is the money aspect. I think the market will settle that eventually. Does it make it challenging for schools like us? Of course. But the fact that you want to bring in freshmen, we're approaching a signing period and you want to bring in young kids. You want to really pour into their development and you want to see them grow and mature. I brought up Tony Toney from Huntsville, the first guy that signed with me when I got this job in Covid, 2020. He was with us for five years and, and I was so proud to watch his maturation. He left here as the all-time winningest player in the history of UAB basketball. He's doing well. He's playing professional basketball and I'm so proud of those moments. I hate that I'm not going to have the opportunity to experience those to that extent because you're just not going to have a kid that long. I feel like for us, the transfer issue is probably the biggest one. If you named me Czar tomorrow and I could say what could we fix, we've got to try to figure out a way to keep kids from five schools in five years because I don't think it's good for them. I don't think it's good for us. I don't think it's good for the sport. It's certainly been challenging.”

On front court versatility: “They certainly are (different skill sets). With KyeRon, we'd be the tallest team in UAB history, which certainly was not the intent, but I'm not complaining about it. We've got multiple guys that can give us some rim protection, which we sorely missed last year. KyeRon is probably one of the few guys that can play the four and the five because of his size and his girth. You know, we've got some guys that are straight fives. We've got some guys that are straight fours. We got a kid in Aleks Alston that really can play the three, four, fiv because he is 6-foot-10, even though slight of build. But he can bring a versatility to our front court. Jeremy Elyzee, the kid from Southeast Louisiana who was a Southland Freshman of the Year two years ago, has been tremendous in what he's brought to the table. And then we've got just a lot of young guys, uh, from (Antallah Sandlin-El) to Matt (Mbole) to Kaleb (Davis). You know, three big guys, one's a JUCO kid, one's a high school kid and one's a transfer who hasn't done a lot at the Division I level. But they've got physical skills that can come in and help us.”

On the timeline for hiring a full-time AD: “We're getting closer. I'm glad you asked that because I know people are like, ‘I don't know what's going on.’ Myself included, I don't know what's going on. We're getting closer. There'll be an outside search firm that gets contracted soon and then there's going to be an internal committee. That internal committee, along with the external, will start the vetting process of, ‘OK, what exactly are we looking for? What is the candidacy pool?’ And then start having those conversations.”

To my knowledge, for the most part (the internal committee) has (been formed). I'm not at liberty to disclose that at this time because I'm not sure every I has been dotted and T crossed. (The) same with the external. I think there's been a selection but again, they're in a contract process. So I think all of these things, the information on both those fronts will be forthcoming.”

On whether he can fill that spot if there is a negative ruling on KyeRon Lindsay-Martin: “No, I don't think so. Not first semester because we've passed the academic deadline. The academic parts of this, a lot of the people that are in this litigation, those kids are in school now. Whether or not they get allowed to play or not will determine will they stay in school? Will they drop? Because then the university's going to have some liabilities that relates to APR that people don't really discuss.

On whether there are players in the portal that could be an option second semester: “Yes, and there's some that have had favorable rulings to this point that have nowhere to go because the academic window, the admission window. You can't just pop up in October and say, ‘Hey, I'm gonna come to UAB,,’ because the academic component. But if, for instance, there was availability and opportunity once you got through the first semester, that would be something that you would have to weigh whether or not it was worth it.”