It is no secret that No. 1 Auburn has had to make some adjustments in the absence of All-American big man Johni Broome. One of the sources the Tigers have turned to is veteran center Dylan Cardwell.
Cardwell tied his career-high in minutes during Auburn’s 88-66 win over No. 15 (now-ranked No. 14) Mississippi State on Jan. 14 with 29. That was the most time Cardwell spent on the floor in a single game since Auburn’s 86-84 overtime loss at home against Ole Miss on Feb. 6, 2021.
The 6-foot-11 Augusta, Ga. native finished the Mississippi State game with nine points, five rebounds and two blocks while shooting 4-of-6 from the field. Cardwell did not have as big of a scoring game in Auburn’s 70-68 road win over then-ranked No. 23 Georiga on Saturday, recording only two points. Cardwell did add seven rebounds, three assists, four blocks and two steals in 22 minutes of action, however.
“He's in the best shape of his life, so he's able to play those minutes, and play those minutes without getting into foul trouble,” AU coach Bruce Pearl said. “That's been a real key: both Chaney (Johnson) and Dylan (Cardwell) have done a tremendous job of defending vertically at the rim without fouling. They're still blocking shots, still changing shots and doing a great job of allowing the officials to see our verticality. The rest of us are obviously trying to feed off that.”
The role Cardwell has played throughout his time with the Tigers might not have always shown up on the scoreboard, but he has been an important piece of the team’s culture throughout his career. Now that he is getting the opportunity to make a bigger difference on the floor, he is not letting it slip away.
Pearl believes the sky's the limit for Cardwell’s basketball career as a result of the little things he has been known to do so well.
“Dylan Cardwell impacts winning in a huge, huge way,” Pearl said. “There are so many things Dylan does in the college game that translates to the NBA -- in the sense that, as a finisher -- Dylan Cardwell does not get enough talk about the national defensive player of the year. He won't block enough shots to win that award, he won't have enough steals to win that award. But if we can keep on winning, and we can keep on pointing that out.”
Cardwell’s ability to defend any position on the floor makes Auburn a significantly harder team to score against. This is a factor that Pearl thinks will give Auburn an edge for the remainder of the season and into tournament play.
“Defense and rebounding win championships. And we've got the best in our league,” Pearl said.
