Dylan Cardwell officially announces return to Auburn for fifth season
AUBURN — Auburn center Dylan Cardwell will return for his fifth season with the Tigers.
He announced his intentions via Instagram on Thursday afternoon.
Cardwell played double-digit minutes in 31 of 35 games this past season, with a season high of 24 minutes played in a win at Georgia. Cardwell averaged 5.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game for the Tigers in 14.5 minutes per game as the backup center behind All-American Johni Broome.
Cardwell’s top four scoring games of his career all came this past season. He scored 11 points against USC, and 12 points at Missouri, versus Ole Miss and at Vanderbilt. And the 24 minutes he played at Georgia was the third most in his career so far.
Cardwell’s career has been fairly consistent, averaging around four points, four boards and a block per game in his career. He’s played in 128 games in his career and will add to that during the 2024-25 season. If you stretch Cardwell’s averages out to 40 minutes per game, he’s averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and nearly four blocks per game over his career.
Bruce Pearl said near the end of the season that Auburn’s seniors, Cardwell included, loved Auburn and Auburn fans loved them. Pearl said specifically, that Cardwell was grateful for the opportunity he had at Auburn.
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“The way they are treated, the way they serve, that stands out to me. Dylan Cardwell is a leader in that regard,” Pearl said. “He will go out as one of the best student-athletes at Auburn, not just because of what he did on the court, but what he does in the community, his ministry.”
But he’s not going out just yet.
Impact of Cardwell’s decision on Auburn’s roster
Cardwell returning is key. He’s an asset as a backup center, extremely athletic, knows the offensive and defensive schemes, and will help provide leadership on what should be a veteran team next season. But Cardwell’s return is especially important because it will allow Auburn to experiment more with Broome at the power forward position, assuming Broome returns. We’re waiting on an official announcement one way or another. It’s possible that you see more Cardwell and Broome on the floor at the same time, as Broome works to develop the forward part of his game in hopes of playing professionally. Broome will play center, too, but Cardwell’s return helps provide flexibility with Broome at times. Ideally, look for Cardwell’s minutes per game to potentially jump from 14.5 per game this past season to 17-20.
