The final week of the Conference USA basketball season will garner plenty of interest even with the regular season championship already in the hands of UAB.

The Blazers officially locked up the top spot in the league with two games left, but spots two through five are a muddled mess heading into Thursday's slate of games.

Louisiana Tech, Marshall and Middle Tennessee are tied for second at 11-5 and Old Dominion is within striking distance at 10-6. Tech has the toughest remaining schedule with games against Marshall and Western Kentucky, but the Bulldogs control their landing spot and can finish as the runner-up to UAB by winning out.

A pair of losses — assuming Old Dominion finishes at least at 11-7 — means Tech would fall to fifth place whereas a split would create a whole mess of tiebreakers. The Bulldogs beat MTSU but lost to ODU, so the winner of Tech/Marshall would hold a significant tiebreaker (Marshall beat ODU twice).

Meanwhile, last weekend's games produced minimal movement among the top seven or eight teams minus some small shuffling. UTEP and Rice were the losers while Western Kentucky took a step forward.

Here are the latest power rankings. This list will be updated every Tuesday until March.

C-USA basketball power rankings: Feb. 23

CONFERENCE USA POWER RANKINGS

1. UAB

Record: 24-5 (14-2)
Previous rank: 1
Weekly schedule: at FIU, at FAU
Explanation: UAB gets to celebrate its C-USA regular season championship, No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and automatic NIT berth by taking a vacation to Florida. Yeah, the Blazers have to play two basketball games, but the two Florida schools shouldn't pose much challenge to UAB.

2. Middle Tennessee

Record: 19-9 (11-5)
Previous rank: 3
Weekly schedule: at FAU, at FIU
Explanation: Middle Tennessee gets the nod here over Marshall due to last weekend's win. The Blue Raiders can't sleepwalk to Florida because FIU is capable of pulling off upsets, but it appears MTSU will hold on to at least second or third place behind UAB.

3. Marshall

Record: 15-12 (11-5)
Previous rank: 2
Weekly schedule: vs. Louisiana Tech, vs. Southern Miss
​Explanation: It's hard to knock a team that loses to the C-USA regular champs and arguably the second-best team in the league as part of back-to-back games. Marshall is still one of the most talented scoring teams in the league. The only problem is the Herd allow 83 points per game in league games. That's where they are vulnerable.

4. Louisiana Tech

Record: 22-7 (11-5)
Previous rank: 5
Weekly schedule: at Marshall, at Western Kentucky
Explanation: The Bulldogs haven't carried their defense on the road most of the year, and that continued against UTEP by allowing 91 points. Tech still hasn't been able to string together more than a handful of strong performances. Just last week, wins over MTSU and UAB had the Bulldogs trending upward before a poor performance against UTEP. Tech is almost certainly out of the running for the regular season crown. The focus now shifts to holding off UTEP and Old Dominion for a top-four seed in Birmingham.

5. Old Dominion

Record: 17-12 (10-6)
Previous rank: 6
Weekly schedule: at North Texas, at Rice
Explanation: Old Dominion does Old Dominion things at home, which usually results in wins. All bets are off when this team goes on the road, though. ODU is still in the mix for a double-bye into the quarterfinals, but it wouldn't surprise anyone if they slipped up at either North Texas or Rice.

6. UTEP

Record: 17-13 (9-8)
Previous rank: 4
Weekly schedule: UTSA
Explanation: Just when we thought UTEP, winners of six straight heading into last week, was on a roll, the Miners came back to life with a pair of road losses to eliminate themselves from top-four seed contention. This is potentially bad news for any of the top four teams in the quarterbacks since UTEP is still one of the more dangerous teams in the league.

7. Charlotte

Record: 12-17 (8-8)
Previous rank: 8
Weekly schedule: at Rice, at North Texas
Explanation: Charlotte, which had cooled off a bit of late, beat UTEP to revive us all who were dozing off in the 49ers. If Charlotte can pull off the Texas sweep, the 49ers can possibly move into the No. 6 slot.

8. Western Kentucky

Record: 14-15 (6-10)
Previous rank: 10
Weekly schedule: Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech
Explanation: Coming off a win over Middle Tennessee and a near-win over UAB, Western Kentucky is reminding us how it has what it takes to make a run in Birmingham. WKU is going to give Louisiana Tech all it has to offer in the season finale.

9. Rice

Record: 12-17 (7-9)
Previous rank: 7
Weekly schedule: vs. Charlotte, vs. Old Dominion
Explanation: Louisiana Tech completely took freshman Marcus Evans out of the game and the Owls suffered in last weekend's loss. Evans still managed 18 points but Rice's offense struggles when he struggles. He's still going to win the rookie of the year award in C-USA.

10. Florida International

Record: 13-16 (7-9)
Previous rank: 11
Weekly schedule: vs. UAB, vs. MTSU
Explanation: FIU can get some momentum heading into the C-USA tournament by beating UAB or MTSU or possibly even both. A win over MTSU would throw a significant wrench into the top of the standings. FIU is a spoiler at this point.

11. North Texas

Record: 11-18 (6-10)
Previous rank: 9
Weekly schedule: vs. Old Dominion, vs. Charlotte
Explanation: Watching North Texas in person makes you wonder how this team has won six league games let alone 11 total this season. UNT has the second-worst 3-point shooting percentage in the league and relies on throwing its weight around inside. When that doesn't work, the Mean Green almost lull teams to sleep with brick after brick.

12. Southern Miss

Record: 8-19 (5-11)
Previous rank: 12
Weekly schedule: at Western Kentucky, at Marshall
Explanation: Even with a win over North Texas last Saturday, Southern Miss is still hanging out at the bottom until further notice. Brighter days are ahead for the Golden Eagles, though.

13. Florida Atlantic

Record: 7-22 (5-11)
Previous rank: 13
Weekly schedule: vs. MTSU, vs. UAB
Explanation: Congrats FAU, you get two of the best teams in Conference USA to close out the regular season. But just ask Louisiana Tech: stranger things have happened in Boca Raton.

14. Texas-San Antonio

Record: 5-25 (3-14)
Previous rank: 14
Weekly schedule: at UTEP
Explanation: This is where comments on UTSA's lowly defense are reserved for. This week, the defense may help boost UTEP, which is in need of a bounce back performance.