AUBURN — A fan favorite has come to a decision regarding his future with Auburn basketball.

Dylan Cardwell, who has spent the last four seasons with the Tigers, plans to run it back on the Plains and use his final year of eligibility during the 2024-25 campaign, he announced via social media Thursday. Cardwell appeared in 35 games this past season, averaging 5.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game while primarily serving as the backup big man to Johni Broome.

Cardwell has a fifth year to use because he played as a freshman during the 2020-21 season. The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to those who participated that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 6-foot-11, 255-pound Cardwell has played in 128 games at Auburn. He's a career 71.3% shooter and has shown to have a knack for catching lobs as a rim runner. His rate from the foul line jumped 26.9% from his junior (31.8%) to senior (58.7%) seasons.

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Cardwell shined defensively in the SEC Tournament, finishing with a block percentage of 21.4% across the three games he played in Nashville, Tennessee. That was way up from his season average of 11.4%, according to College Basketball Analytics. Cardwell's 11 blocks were the most by an Auburn player in a single SEC Tournament in program history.

"Dylan, if he played more ... could have been the (SEC) defensive player of the year in my mind," coach Bruce Pearl said at his end-of-season press conference in March.

The retention of Cardwell is relevant news for the Tigers, who have already lost three rotational pieces from a season ago to the transfer portal in Tre Donaldson, Aden Holloway and KD Johnson. Broome, who could declare for the 2024 NBA Draft, has yet to make an announcement regarding his future.

Cardwell ranks top-10 in program history in the following career stats: Blocks (158), block percentage (9.6%), offensive rebounds (216), offensive rebound percentage (13.9%), total rebounding percentage (14.1%), box plus/minus (7.5), defensive box plus/minus (4.9), player efficiency rating (21.4), win shares per 40 minutes (.178) and games played (128).

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Dylan Cardwell: Auburn basketball center will return for last season