The UAB basketball team made its own bed and now it has to lie in it.

Flush with talent and picked to win the conference by the league’s head coaches, the Blazers were set for a regular-season title but struggled to defend and lost its best player for five games midway through January.

When everything could have been lost, UAB found a way on defense, welcomed back its ailing superstar and finished the regular season on a confident run into the conference tournament.

“I don’t know if we’re spiteful or even angry,” UAB head coach Andy Kennedy said. “We understand that we put ourselves in this position. We still have confidence that we’re playing good basketball, but we can play better. They feel there’s unfinished business there.”

The third-seeded Blazers enter the 2023 Conference USA tournament without qualms or fear and face sixth-seeded Rice in today’s quarterfinal at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN+.

“I’m excited about the opportunity that this tournament provides,” Kennedy said. “We were in a very similar situation last year where we went in with high expectations, not as high as this year based on what we accomplished last year, but we didn’t meet our first goal which is to win the regular season championship.”

“This league, maybe the first time in the current formation of the league, is where it could be a multi-bid league just based on the work that FAU put in. They’re deserving of that, and based on their numbers, they’ll see that come to fruition if they don’t capture the tournament championship, which we certainly hope they do not.”

The possibility of C-USA earning multiple NCAA tournament bids this season is higher than in previous years and, indeed, Kennedy is correct when stating the perception of the league changed with FAU’s impressive season.

The Owls are 15 in the NCAA NET, the highest among C-USA schools, and were ranked 19 in the AP poll at the height of their 20-game winning streak — ultimately snapped in an 86-77 loss at UAB in early February. Along with FAU, North Texas has essentially been a top-50 NET team all season and enters the league tournament at 42 in the NET, 16 spots ahead of the Blazers (58).

UAB is the 3-seed in the C-USA tournament and would possibly face the second-seeded Mean Green in the semifinals provided that both teams claim victory in the quarterfinals. FAU, by virtue of winning the regular-season championship, sits atop the bracket on the opposite side of the Blazers and North Texas and would only face UAB in the title game.

On neutral ground, North Texas and FAU are both Quad-1 games for UAB and a split between the two — the Blazers advancing to face the Owls in the championship – could give credence to an at-large bid but more than likely would send UAB to the NIT.

“It gives us an opportunity at proving what we believe is that we are one of the best teams in this league and we have to go play like that,” Kennedy said.

The Blazers roared into the conference schedule at 9-2 overall with losses coming on a neutral court to MAC regular-season champion Toledo (26-6), who advanced to the MAC tournament semifinals Thursday, and on the road at West Virginia (19-14), who fell to Kansas in the BIG 12 quarterfinals.

UAB opened its league slate at 3-0 but hit a skid that included a three-game losing streak and losses in five of six games. During that stretch, Jordan “Jelly” Walker, currently the nation’s third-leading scorer (23.2 ppg), suffered a foot injury and missed five straight games as the Blazers learned to win without him.

As Walker sat on the bench, UAB went 1-2 before earning wins over LA Tech and Rice, and when the senior returned, the Blazers put it all together to finish the regular season winning 10 of 11 games and on a six-game streak entering the conference tournament.

“We were not completely off the rails because we lost three one-possession games,” Kennedy said. “It would be so easy to be sitting here still undefeated in the league, however, we didn’t. I was already contemplating that we needed to change some things and then we get the word that Jelly is out. Honestly, we didn’t know if it would be five games or whether it was going to be a half, it was kind of based on him.”

“It forced us to make changes and figure out who we are,” he added. “In his absence, it forced other guys to take on more prominent roles and that has helped us now that we’re back to full speed. Different guys have had to step up in different situations and as a result of that, we’re playing our best basketball.”

The league’s yearly awards and all-conference teams were announced earlier this week and Walker earned first-team honors while Trey Jemison was named third-team and all-defensive team. KJ Buffen and Eric Gaines were honorable mentions.

Despite leading the conference in scoring and having slightly better numbers than North Texas’ Tylor Perry, Walker did not repeat as C-USA Player of the Year as Perry took home the league’s top individual award.

“Those things are important to Jelly and he’s man enough to admit that,” Kennedy said. “Some people are like, ‘I don’t really care,’ but he’ll tell you he cares and he does. He understands that the big picture is the big picture and we still have unfinished business. He didn’t play particularly well and we didn’t play particularly well in the NCAA tournament last year, and he wants an opportunity to make amends for that.”

“Keeping jelly on an emotionally stable platform — I haven’t done a good job of that throughout his time,” he added. “It’s going to be volatile but that’s who we are and that’s who he is. Jelly has enough trust in the process that he realizes we’re going to put him in the best position possible to make plays. He’s playing great basketball and we anticipate that will continue throughout this weekend.”