Use ui-view as the template for state inside ui-router instead of an external template - angularjs

Question

I have an app that is currently using the angular ui-router module dependency. The only aspect of the ui-router that I'm currently employing is the ability to apply/modify $stateParams to $scope and vice versa so the URL can change the way data is displayed in the controller to a user on arrival (i.e. url?param=something will filter the data by something).
I have the following in my app.config to set the state:
$stateProvider
.state('root', {
url: '/?param',
templateUrl: 'template.html',
controller: 'listController',
params: {
param: {
value: 'something',
squash: true
}
}
});
On my homepage, template.html successfully loads when the app is instantiated as such:
<div ng-app="myApp">
<div ui-view>
</div>
</div>
However, I have reached a roadblock and realize that calling the template from within templateUrl isn't going to work, as this app is being built inside another framework and therefore needs to be called from within the homepage itself to access its full capabilities.
Being a noob at AngualrJS, I was wondering if anyone can tell me what the best way is to accomplish this while still keeping the logic of $stateParams and other ui-router capabilities intact for the future.
For instance, could I just remove the templateUrl parameter from my state and call the controller directly inside the ui-view like this:
<div ng-app="myApp">
<div ui-view>
<div ng-controller="listController">
do something
</div>
</div>
</div>
I also looked into changing the entire logic from using ui-router to simply using the $location service but I'm wondering if there is a way to accomplish this without needing to over-do everything.