SAN ANTONIO | It was an easy task. With both of us scheduled to appear at the Birmingham Alumni Chapter get-together at the Hoover Met, a friend involved with the chapter asked me if I would care if Dylan Cardwell rode up and back with me.

Not a problem. I always enjoy company on a drive, and I figured he, of all people, would be entertaining. So, on the two-plus hour drive up and back, we discussed different things.

He told me what he wanted to do in the future after his basketball playing days were over. Cardwell talked about the reasons he decided to come back for his fifth season. We even joked about his celebration after his dunk two seasons prior in Rupp Arena, which drew the jeers of the Kentucky faithful, considering Auburn was down 30 points.

Somewhere between Montgomery and Birmingham on I-65, it hit me that Cardwell was one of those student-athletes who gets it. He gets what it means to be one of the most recognizable faces representing the university and all that entails. The center understands that basketball is not the end all, that his education is important, and that being a role model means even more.

He calls Dr. Christopher Roberts, the president of Auburn University, his boy, shooting ads with him for social media. He's seemingly everywhere all at once, appearing on campus in different places as if he was cloned to make more time for Auburn fans to enjoy his presence.

Hell, if he wasn't 6-foot-11 and too big, I'm certain he could be a friend of Aubie for a year.

But his most considerable presence came on the basketball floor.

It was always like a moth to a flame, Auburn fans following Cardwell wherever he would dare lead them. After every dunk, he would call for crowd noise. The Auburn faithful would respond like the local minister just told everyone to rise to sing the following hymn.

On Saturday night, Cardwell talked about wearing the Auburn jersey for the last time. The winningest player in program history, he spoke about his love for the university.

"Auburn means the world," Cardwell said. "It's my home. I spent 20 percent of my life there the past five years, and just crazy; regardless of whether we won the next championship or not, it's the last time that everyone put on an Auburn jersey. So it was just crazy to think about. It's a weird think about, like I said, I have a home in Auburn, I have family in Auburn. It's just all Auburn I've known in the past five years."

Johni Broome got the accolades and national attention. Chad Baker-Mazara got the headlines, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. Tahaad Pettiford was the freshman phenom with the rising NBA stock.

But Cardwell, the never-stops-smiling Cardwell, was the heart of the team. His now famous come-to-Jesus speech after the Alabama State game has been discussed ad nauseam, but without it, the Tigers' run probably ends earlier than it did. He lit a fire that went missing for a couple of weeks, helping Auburn to the brink of a spot in the national title game.

Whatever Cardwell decides to do in the future, there's no question he will be successful at it.

Plain and simple, Auburn will never see another Dylan Cardwell.