Get ready, Season 2 of Dylan Cardwell should be even more fun than the first one

It's more than reaction GIFs. Cardwell was one of college basketball's most efficient inside scorers last season, and he's just getting started.

(Shanna Lockwood/Auburn Athletics)

Outside of Sharife Cooper, no player captured the hearts of the Auburn basketball fan base last season more than Dylan Cardwell.

From a recruiting perspective, Cardwell might have been the most under-the-radar member of Bruce Pearl’s 2020-21 roster. A 3-star prospect, he was ranked as the No. 174 player in the country in the class of 2020 and the No. 29 center.

Cardwell was something of an unknown commodity to many. He committed to the Tigers late in the 2020 recruiting cycle — early May, to be exact — and didn’t play during his senior season of high school.

The 6-foot-11 center’s mainstream recognizability might have had more to do with where he was coming from than who he was as a player. He was a product of McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Ga., which was the same school that gave Auburn the likes of Cooper, top-five NBA Draft pick Isaac Okoro and Stretch Akingbola.

But he had to sit out at McEachern as a senior due to transfer rules. He spent…