Dylan Cardwell didn’t play his senior season of high school. The rust showed early in the season, but you could see the flashes of potential.

You could also see the energy that Cardwell brought to the floor every time he got on it.

In Saturday’s loss to Ole Miss, Cardwell had a career-high 28 minutes of play and in those minutes, Cardwell had a career-high 10 points, six rebounds and was plus-three.

“Dylan is one of our most physical players,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Maybe our most-physical player. That is a big, strong young freshman, and he's going to be a good player. He didn't play basketball last year 'cause he wasn't eligible [as a] transfer, and the year before he was at Oak Hill playing about five minutes a game.”

Cardwell started the second half against Ole Miss in place of JT Thor and he also started in overtime for Thor.

The 4-star, No. 131 player in the class of 2020, was described as a potential steal of the class by Pearl before the season started.

Pearl knew it might take awhile for Cardwell to realize his full potential, but saw that for 6-foot-11 and 250 pounds, Cardwell could move like the best of them.

“Dylan Cardwell could wind up being one of the steals of the draft in the sense that he is 6-foot-11, 260 pounds, and he moves as well as any 6-foot-11, 260 pounder, he moves like the best of them,” Pearl said before the season started. “I’m not saying he’s better than the rest, but for a big man he runs, he moves his feet, he gets open, he can handle the ball a little bit, he shoots it a little bit. I think he’s got really, really great upside.”

Now, with Auburn 20 games into the season, Cardwell’s beginning to flourish for Pearl and Auburn.

But Pearl knows, this is only the beginning for the youngster.

“The best is yet to come, but he was out there because of his physicality,” Pearl said of Cardwell and the minutes he played against Ole Miss.

Cardwell averaged 3.2 points per game before Sharife Cooper was cleared by the NCAA.

Since his AOT teammate got cleared, Cardwell has averaged 5.3 points per game and several highlight-reel alley-oops from Cooper per game.

Cardwell and Auburn take the court next at Vanderbilt on Tuesday.

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