At the ceremony, Houston acknowledged his father’s ability to make those outside his family feel welcomed. “The amazing amount of capacity to love not only those who he cared about the most but those he coaches and managed and cared about almost just as much,” Houston said. “They felt the same thing. To this day … I talk to all the players and they still see him as a father. That to me is what’s amazing because I (and my family) never felt like we lost out on anything. I think that’s really the biggest piece of the legacy.”

The Auburn center believes faith and sacrifice is the reason behind the Tigers’ success

Dylan Cardwell regularly locks his phone in a box. It's not because he wants to focus on basketball. The Auburn center does it to be still so he can hear God speak.

Cardwell believes in the Christian faith. His spiritual walk has impacted his teammates' individual lives and his team's performance on the court. Florida defeated Cardwell and Auburn 79-73 Saturday in the Final Four. Cardwell finished with nine points and eight rebounds. Despite the loss, Cardwell’s impact on the team is undeniable.. Cardwell is averaging (I will update this after the next game).

Auburn forward Chris Moore was roommates with Cardwell from 2021 to about 2023. They went on a mission trip to Israel in 2022 and bonded then. Moore credited Cardwell as one of his teammates who taught him how to live like a Christian man.

"Dylan is a brother to me," Moore said. "He's helped me in so many ways, and he's helped the team in so many ways."

Auburn forward Adrian Scott was also one of Cardwell's former roommates. Scott once asked Cardwell how he built a strong relationship with God. Cardwell told him not to worry about trying to be perfect and to pray constantly.

"He uplifts me (and) helped me build up my relationship with God a lot since I've been here," Scott said. "He's somebody you can always talk to about anything. He uplifts the team and brings all the energy. You can always count on him to give all his effort."

Perhaps no one has felt Cardwell's impact more than his brother, walk-on freshman Drake Cardwell. Drake held back tears as he sat in Auburn's locker room at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Thursday and discussed how his brother changed his life.

"He's amazing to look up to. He's a great leader to me and obviously to all his teammates, but it's different because it's on a personal level for me. That's my older brother," Drake said. Just looking up to him has been special. I couldn't imagine being here without him."

Drake said his life began to reshape about two years ago when he was a junior in high school.

"I was quiet (and) closed off. I wasn't faithful. I didn't really know who I was," Drake said. "After the impact he (Dylan) has had on my life, just planting seeds in me with the Lord, I feel I've found a new self and am always happy now."

Despite being seen as one of the team's spiritual leaders, Cardwell said he also needed to grow this year.

Cardwell used to want to be an influencer on campus until he read "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" and felt challenged by the Lord to simplify his Christian faith. He selected "intentional" as his word of the year and began prioritizing his spiritual life by reading more books, spending more devoted time with the Lord, deleting Instagram, and limiting his phone scrolling.

"I felt like I was outspoken about my faith but wasn't living it," Cardwell said. "The Lord challenged me to simplify my life, pursue Him more and not make basketball the object of his faith."

Cardwell's flaws aren't a secret to the team. The Tigers hold mandatory 9 a.m. team breakfasts that include a team Bible study team breakfast. Along with reading scripture, they confess their sins and pray with one another. Cardwell said the Bible studies have allowed the team to connect deeper outside of basketball.

For Cardwell, faith is the reason behind the Tigers' Final Four run.

"We have more talented teams than this team but we haven't had more spiritually disciplined teams than this team," Cardwell said. "Our faith is the biggest reason we are successful." 

Auburn selected "sacrifice" as the word of their year. Sacrifice motivated the Tigers in their fight for the national championship.

"You don't know sacrifice if you don't know Jesus Christ," Cardwell said. "He's the one who died for all our sins and that's been the reason we have this level of urgency lately because we understand that on the other side of our sacrifice is the potential to play for a national championship, not just for our own glory, not just for the glory of ourselves but for the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Auburn fell one game short of a national championship game appearance but even in the face of defeat, their faith remained steadfast.  

“Sometimes people just want to praise God when things are going good but that’s not how God wants us to live,” Moore said in the Auburn locker room after Saturday’s loss. “God is going to bring his toughest soldiers through the toughest battles and we are some tough soldiers that he had to put through a battle.  

“We didn’t come out on top but this is a testament to us still believing in Him and thanking Him for us getting here because we know it could’ve been any other team in our position.”

Voices of a New Era

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