Kennedy updates status of Lindsay-Martin, AD search

Andy Kennedy is fighting on two fronts and running out of time on both.

UAB's men's basketball coach and interim athletic director said Thursday that the program has made "major progress" in its effort to restore fifth-year forward KyeRon Lindsay-Martin's eligibility — but the case is not yet resolved, and the Nov. 2 season opener is six weeks away. Kennedy revealed that UAB is not pursuing the five-for-five pathway at the center of lawsuits across the country. Instead, the program is seeking a medical hardship waiver for Lindsay-Martin's freshman season at Georgia, a process Kennedy said requires extensive documentation and remains subject to additional questions from the NCAA.

"We're getting closer to D-Day," Kennedy said. "We start this thing November second, 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, it really determines it."

If the ruling goes against Lindsay-Martin, Kennedy said UAB cannot add a replacement this semester because the academic deadline has passed. The stakes are significant: Lindsay-Martin averaged 10.8 points and 6.4 rebounds last season, and Kennedy said the team is schematically different with and without him.

On the athletic director search, Kennedy said an outside search firm will be contracted "soon" and an internal committee has been formed "for the most part." He declined to name the committee members or the firm, saying the contract process is not yet complete, but said announcements on both fronts will be forthcoming.

Kennedy opened his first media availability of the season by noting that 11 of his 13 scholarship players are newcomers. Only sophomore guard Salim London returns from last season's rotation. The team has been working together for 13 weeks but has not been at full capacity for more than a week due to injuries. Kennedy praised the backcourt's experience level — citing Justyn Fernandez, Deuce Jones, Elijah Duval and T.J. Caldwell — but invoked former UAB coach Gene Bartow's advice that a coach doesn't really know what he's got in a team until he sees them "when the popcorn's popping" on game night.

Full transcript

On the first week of official practice and the team's identity:

Coach Kennedy: "It's the first week of practice, official practice. It seems so different. I remember back in the day, the old midnight madness days where you would play at midnight from October fourteenth transitioning into the fifteenth, 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. And then it would be about a six-week gauntlet leading up to the first game, because back in those days, first games were tipping right around Thanksgiving. Now, all that's changed.

"I've had my kids thirteen weeks. So the newness of it being official practice, even though 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, 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. And so I like our pieces. We just gotta get back healthy."

On how different the team is from thirteen weeks ago:

Coach Kennedy: "Completely. Of our thirteen scholarship players, eleven of them are newcomers. We returned Salim, and then the KyeRon 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.

"You've got eleven 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. But 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 the difference KyeRon Lindsay-Martin makes:

Coach Kennedy: "It's a huge difference. This is a guy that played, number one, because of the continuity, because of the fact that it would be the first time in his career granted the opportunity to play in the same program in back-to-back years, which I think would be tremendously important for him.

"He was a guy that got us around eleven points and seven rebounds a game. He had huge nights for us throughout the course of last season. And the experience factor, I think, is the most important piece to his ability to return. I think he could really give us some great leadership in our front court."

On Salim London's improvement:

Coach Kennedy: "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 KyeRon'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. And 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, and I think it'll show in his play this year."

On whether this is the deepest backcourt he has had at UAB:

Coach Kennedy: "I try not to — 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, 'Don't worry when the popcorn's popping.' And he's right, because a lot of guys can do it out here, 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 twenty-nine 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. Buddy Johnson was a freshman. We still had Tony Toney, who was back in my office yesterday.

"But from an experience standpoint, starting with Salim, the only returner, 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 got a guy in Elijah Duval that was the WAC Freshman of the Year. Got a guy in T.J. Caldwell, who's a fifth-year senior, started out in the SEC. Not to mention some other pieces. So I think that we have a chance to have an outstanding backcourt."

On balancing the AD role with coaching:

Coach Kennedy: "My daughters do this to me all the time. They throw me in the middle of a 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 feel like that a little bit as the new 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. The grass is not growing over here. What are we gonna do? Just some of the 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. Dr. [Ray] 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 wanna dig in because I wanna do a good job in this interim on a number of fronts, and I wanna make sure that all the sports feel supported, and they've all got daily problems.

"My day job's pretty consuming as well. We're about two weeks away from scrimmaging another opponent, and then 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 wanna do a good job in both capacities."

On the challenge of player development in the transfer era:

Coach Kennedy: "It's been challenging. That'd be the best way I would term it. Certain guys learn certain ways, and everybody's gonna come at it differently. So number one, you've gotta try to figure out their capacity for work. That's what we try to do in the summer. 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 wanna work on the deficiencies, but we wanna keep the main thing the main thing. If you're a fastball pitcher, that's still a fastball.

"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 roster-building gets easier in the transfer era:

Coach Kennedy: "In my role as the AD 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. The Protect Sports Act is in the headlines, and it seems like 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 gonna 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 wanna bring in young kids, and you wanna really pour into their development, and you wanna 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 of 2020. He was with us for five years. 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, and I hate that I'm not gonna have the opportunity to experience those to that extent, because you're just not gonna have a kid that long.

"I feel like for us, the transfer issue is probably the biggest one. If you made me czar tomorrow and I could say, 'What could we fix?' We gotta try to figure out a way to keep kids from five schools in five years, 'cause 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."

On the front court's versatility:

Coach Kennedy: "With KyeRon, we'd be the tallest team in UAB history, which certainly was not the intent, but I'm not complaining about it. And 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. 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, five because he is six foot ten, even though slight of build. But he can bring a versatility to our front court. Jeremy Elyzee, the kid from Southeastern 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, from Antallah to Matt to Kaleb, three big guys that haven'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 the AD search:

Coach Kennedy: "We're getting closer. I'm glad you asked that because I know people are like, 'Hey, man, what's going on?' Myself included, 'Hey, what's going on?' And we're getting closer.

"There'll be an outside search firm that gets contracted soon. And then there's gonna be an internal committee. And then that internal committee, along with the external, will start the vetting process of, okay, what exactly are we looking for? What is the candidacy pool? And then start having those conversations."

On whether the internal committee has been formed:

Coach Kennedy: "To my knowledge, for the most part, it has. I'm not at liberty to disclose that at this time, because I'm not sure every I has been dotted and T crossed. Same with the external. I think there's been a selection, but again, they're in a contract process. So I think the information on both those fronts will be forthcoming."

On the progress in KyeRon Lindsay-Martin's eligibility case:

Coach Kennedy: "We're still working with the NCAA. We're not even really attacking the five for five, which he would qualify for. That's what's in the news. He's a class of '22 guy that's played four years, and he didn't get the fifth year, and 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 it a medical hardship based on a lot of external circumstances, and that takes a lot of documentation. So we have, we feel like we've made major progress. They're still asking questions that we have to come up with the answers to, to get final word."

On how Lindsay-Martin has handled the uncertainty:

Coach Kennedy: "I give him credit. 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 weighing on him. You can tell it's weighing on me, because it's hard for all of us to even understand. We're one 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 second, 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, it really determines it. 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. He's got confidence in the powers that be, and we hope that it all works."

On why he chose to wait for Lindsay-Martin rather than fill the roster spot:

Coach Kennedy: "Because I think it's the right thing to do, honestly. That's what it came down to. I felt like he deserved the opportunity, and again, there's two bites of the apple here. We're still trying to go through the system, and then there's also the five-year bite that a lot of people are chewing on.

"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 to the end."

On whether UAB could add a player if the ruling is negative:

Coach Kennedy: "I don't think so. Not first semester, because we 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 gonna have some liabilities that relate to APR that people don't really discuss."

On whether second-semester portal options exist:

Coach Kennedy: "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 want to come to UAB,' because of the academic component. But if 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's worth it."