Hinnen: Sorry, Auburn fans, but we have to talk about a national title

This team has been built by doing things that don’t come easy, by players who haven’t had it easy. That’s made them a joy — and a juggernaut.

This is a guest column from longtime friend of the newsletter Jerry Hinnen. Jerry is Auburn blogging royalty, from his days running the Joe Cribbs Car Wash to his work at CBS Sports and The War Eagle Reader.

Here’s Jerry on why Auburn fans should embrace the championship talk for this basketball team — even if there’s so many factors, both current and historical, that would make you think otherwise.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

There’s 6:29 to play in Oxford. Auburn’s up 63-60. Johni Broome puts up a 8-footer from the left baseline.

Auburn hasn’t yet blinked; if they had, they’d be behind by eight, the way Ole Miss has played. But Ole Miss hasn’t blinked, either; if they had, they’d be behind by 14, the way Auburn has played.

It’s the sort of game where one blink will decide it, and one missed shot could be how that blink starts.

Broome’s jumper is off, and all five Rebels crash the boards. Auburn has only one player in rebounding position: Dylan Cardwell. The Tigers are fortunate, though. For one thing, the Tigers’ 1-in, 4-out offense has pulled Ole Miss’s best rebounder, Malik Dia, away from the basket and left a smaller player to try and box out Cardwell.

For another, even bigger thing, Cardwell is on the floor in an Auburn uniform at all.

Having firmly established himself last season as one of the best shot-blockers and rim-finishers in the nation on a per-minute basis, the fifth-year senior could be playing 30 minutes per game (foul trouble permitting) as the no-doubt starting center for 330-plus other Division 1 teams.

Instead, he’s elected to continue playing (mostly) the same position on the same Division I team as the best college basketball player in America.

And, for a third thing, Auburn is fortunate that Cardwell has steadfastly refused to let his second-option status diminish his desire to improve. By coincidence, the color commentator for ESPN’s broadcast of the game is Cardwell’s former coach at Oak Hill Academy, Cory Alexander. He reveals that, during his Oak Hill tenure, Cardwell needed to work on his conditioning. He did, and he came to Auburn.

But he came to Auburn as a limited offensive player who posted negative assist-to-turnover ratios each of his first four seasons on the Plains. This, however, is Cardwell’s fifth season, in which — despite enjoying the largest offensive role of his Auburn career — he’s also posting his lowest turnover rate.

He grabs the rebound. He is swarmed by Rebels. He spots the open Chad Baker-Mazara at the 3-point arc anyway.

His pass is accurate. Baker-Mazara’s shot is good — Cardwell’s third assist on a Tiger three-pointer of the game — and Auburn takes a 66-60 lead. This becomes the Rebels’ next possession:

Timeout, Chris Beard. There’s your blink. Auburn never leads by less than two possessions again and wins its 13th Quad 1 game, the most Quad 1 wins any team has had on February 1 since Quad 1 wins were invented.

How had Cardwell secured such great rebounding position?

How had he made himself the kind of player who could locate Baker-Mazara, despite being harassed by the entire opposing team?

When you’re willing to scratch and claw for minutes on a roster with Broome instead of breezing your way to a starring role elsewhere, what are you helping make the linchpin of the Auburn basketball program for years to come?

Work, y’all. Hard work.