UAB will make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2015 by way of Conference USA’s automatic bid as a No. 12 seed, and drew No. 5 seed Houston in the First Round.

The official bracket released Sunday has the Blazers facing the Cougars in the Midwest Region. The two teams will face off on Friday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pa. Time and TV information to be released at a later time.

UAB (27-7) won its first Conference USA Championship Saturday night, after entering the tournament as the second seed in the West and first defeating east third-seed Florida Atlantic 80-66 before outlasting a gritty Middle Tennessee team in triple overtime, tying the longest game in C-USA Championship history. They followed that with an 82-73 victory over No. 3 West seed Louisiana Tech where they led for all but 36 seconds of the game.

UAB boasts the Conference USA Player of the Year, Jordan Walker, who finished as the C-USA Tournament MVP, averaging 31 points over three games. Walker was also the C-USA Newcomer of the year along with being named to the All-C-USA First Team. The Blazers also have All-Defensive honoree Quan Jackson who also earned Third Team All-Conference honors.

Head Coach Andy Kennedy’s Blazers is the 16th team in program history to make the NCAA Tournament and the Blazers won their sixth conference tournament title following their win over LA Tech. The 27 wins so far this year are also a single-season record for UAB.

18th-ranked Houston (29-5) is fresh off winning its second-straight American Athletic Conference Championship title after securing a 71-53 victory over Memphis. The Cougars are led by AAC Coach of the Year Kelvin Sampson while graduate forwards Fabian White, Jr., and Josh Carlton were named to the AAC First Team.