Last summer, while assessing his frontcourt talent, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl matter-of-factly told Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook the Tigers had no peers, at least not in the SEC.

“Our front line, particularly on the defensive end, is as good as there is in our league, with size, athleticism, depth,” Pearl said.

It took the worst-case scenario Pearl could have envisioned, but an ankle injury that has knocked out National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome for the last two games has made Pearl look like a prophet. Without Broome and his 17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.7 blocked shots a game, No. 1 Auburn (17-1, 5-0) has beaten two ranked teams — at home against rugged Mississippi State and on the road against Georgia, which has its own talented front line. Now they have a huge game coming up at home on Saturday against No. 6 Tennessee.

Not many teams could lose a potential National Player of the Year and plug in a player like 6-foot-11, 255-pound super senior Dylan Cardwell in his place. Pearl has told the media he thinks Cardwell is the best defensive big in the league, which is quite a statement considering Broome plays for Auburn, too. In the two games Broome has missed, Cardwell contributed nine points, five rebounds and two blocks against Mississippi State and seven rebounds and four blocks against Georgia. 

Johni Broome of the Auburn Tigers men's basketball team posts up an opponent
Auburn’s Johni Broome is set to return to the lineup soon.
Getty Images

Cardwell has gotten help from 6-foot-7, 220-pound senior Chaney Johnson, who delivered 17 points, eight boards and four blocks against Mississippi State.

Not that Pearl can’t wait for Broome’s return, but with a tough twosome like Cardwell and Johnson, he’s not about to force Broome back into the lineup. And with big, experienced guards Denver Jones (6-foot-4 senior), Miles Kelly (6-foot-6 senior) and Chad Baker-Mazara (6-foot-7 senior) in the starting lineup, Auburn can get away without as much size at either the four or five spots. All three guards can defend multiple positions, and Kelly and Baker-Mazara are good rebounders.

Cardwell and Johnson have interesting stories. Cardwell had averaged just 13.6 minutes a game during his career, and playing behind Broome, the prospect for more playing time didn’t seem likely. After last season, he took a trip to the beach and pondered his options. His goal is to play in the NBA, which is realistic considering his next-level rim protection ability. He had to decide whether he should transfer to a program where he would start, which might allow him to better feature his pro potential, or continue in a reserve role on a national championship contender.

He would have likely made more NIL money if he transferred, but Cardwell, who has graduated with honors from Auburn’s business school, eventually decided, as he told AuburnTigers.com, “I’m an Auburn man through and through.” 

Pearl calls Johnson his hardest worker. There’s no denying Johnson has been willing to put in the time to reach his goals. After his high school career in Birmingham, Alabama, Johnson had five scholarship offers, but none came from a Division I school. He chose to play at D-II Alabama-Huntsville, where he earned Gulf South Conference Player of the Year honors in 2022-23, and then decided his game was good enough for a higher level.

Backing up Jaylin Williams in 2023-24, Johnson averaged 4.7 points and 3.4 boards per game. He started the season as sixth man but entered the starting lineup when Broome went down. Johnson’s playing time has been bumped up, along with his stats (10.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg, .575 FG). Like Cardwell, Johnson has also earned a degree from Auburn’s college of business.

In an era of unlimited transfers, Cardwell and Johnson are two examples of players who were willing to stick with a plan and advance their education. Another trip to the Final Four, where Auburn played in 2019, would be a bonus.


Tennessee’s Okpara rising to the level of SEC competition

Guards Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier are Tennessee’s most important players, but since SEC games began, a previously unsung transfer from Ohio State, 6-foot-11, 235-pound junior Felix Okpara, has made himself an essential part of the Vols’ success — on both ends of the floor.

Sixth-ranked Tennessee (17-2, 4-2) signed Okpara out of the transfer portal last spring to replace 7-footer Jonas Aidoo, who after last season abruptly transferred to Arkansas despite having started every game and earning second-team All-SEC honors. The Tennessee staff knew where to turn to find a replacement. The Vols had previously recruited Okpara, a Nigerian who played for a season at Hamilton Heights Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When Okpara had a second chance to join the Vols via the portal, he jumped at it. The coach who had recruited him at OSU, Chris Holtmann, had been fired, and Okpara’s host family still lives in Chattanooga.

Zakai Zeigler is all smiles with teammate Chaz Lanier
Getty

Plus, there was plenty of playing time available after the departure of Aidoo and another frontcourt player, Tobe Awaka, who left for Arizona. Okpara has started every game this season. He had a lot to learn about playing defense the way coach Rick Barnes prefers, screening, and working with Zeigler in the pick-and-roll, but his play since the calendar turned to 2025 proves he’s caught on. 

In a four-game stretch from January 7-18, Okpara blocked 13 shots after blocking just 18 in the season’s first 14 games. This was more like what Okpara delivered at Ohio State, when last season he finished second in the Big Ten in blocks (83). On Tuesday night in a win over No. 14 Mississippi State, Okpara delivered nine points, a season-high 12 rebounds and even knocked down his first three-pointer in two seasons, a huge play as the shot clock was expiring that doused a second-half rally by the Bulldogs. One game earlier, in a one-point loss at Vanderbilt, Okpara contributed a season-high 16 points, four rebounds and four blocks. 

“He gives them more of a defensive rim presence,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. “And then on the other end, he’s such a lob threat with Ziegler. And now that he’s got [Okpara] out there with the option of, when he gets in that lane to just throw it up — and he throws it so high that nobody else can get it — was something we really, really tried to game plan. He’s a little bit stronger in person than I thought he was on video.”

Okpara has put in a lot of time on his shooting, as his recent accuracy from the free throw line (6 of 8 in his last two games) indicates. That desperation three-pointer at the buzzer wasn’t a heave but a sweet-looking stroke. The last time Okpara made a three was Dec. 3, 2022, against Saint Francis. “It’s my first and probably … I don’t want to say it’s my last, but … for now it’s gonna be my last,” Okpara said.

More SEC News

Opposing Coaches on John Calipari and Arkansas: “Outdated.” “None of Their Pieces Fit.”
Jeff Goodman diagnoses what’s gone wrong at Arkansas, which remains winless in the SEC
Here’s a Scary Thought: Alabama Has Lots of Room to Get Better
The Tide are 13-2 and have won seven games in a row, but their ceiling is much higher
Breaking Down the Race for National Coach of the Year
A couple of candidates from the state of Kentucky are on my top 10 list. But who’s number one?

Around the Rim

• Playing on a team with preseason All-American Wade Taylor IV and senior Zhuric Phelps, Texas A&M guard Manny Obaseki doesn’t exactly bask in the limelight. But Wednesday night in a hard-fought win at Ole Miss, it was the 6-foot-4 junior’s time to shine.

The 13th-ranked Aggies (15-4, 4-2) trailed all game, until Obaseki’s three-pointer from the right corner gave them a 63-62 lead. Texas A&M was behind by 11 points in the second half, and Ole Miss had a two-possession lead with less than a minute to play. Obaseki, who came into the game shooting 28.6 percent from three, scored all 12 of his points in the game’s final 14 minutes, including two three-pointers. 

Obaseki is a great example of how Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams runs his program. He’ll take transfers, but he also recruits freshmen and retains them. Despite being overshadowed by Taylor and others, Obaseki has gotten his licks in throughout his career. As a freshman, he racked up a pair of 19-point games. A year later, his scoring average of 5.2 points a game ranked No. 2 in the SEC among players who averaged less than 15 minutes.

In 2023-24, Obaseki’s ascension into the starting lineup in early March helped spark a five-game winning streak that resulted in a berth in the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 16.5 points on .545 shooting from three in his last eight games.

“A lot of people talk about Manny and what he did in those last 10 or so games, but we’ve had the opportunity to see Manny do those things every day,” A&M assistant Devin Johnson said. “The exciting part for us is to see his growth and for Manny to show more consistency. We know he can do it because he’s in the gym working every day.”

Missouri guard Caleb Grill earned SEC Player of the Week honors on Monday after two games during which he averaged 19.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.5 assists. He shot 66.7 percent from the field and 60 percent from three-point range. The well-traveled Grill, who since 2019 has played at Iowa State twice, UNLV and Missouri, has always been known as a shooter, but Mizzou coach Dennis Gates thinks there’s much more to the 6-foot-3, 215-pound grad student’s game.

“His tenacity,” Gates told me last summer. “His defensive recognition. Unbelievable toughness. He’s a future head coach. … He’s one of the toughest human beings I’ve had on any of my teams.”

• Like Texas A&M’s Obaseki, Florida guard Will Richard doesn’t quite get the recognition of teammates Walter Clayton, Jr. and Alijah Martin, but he has his moments. One of them came on Wednesday night, when the fifth-ranked Gators (17-2, 4-2 SEC) came from behind to avoid an upset at South Carolina. Trailing all game, Florida fought back from a double-digit deficit by employing a 1-2-2 full-court press, with Richard at the front. The press netted nine turnovers in the game’s final 10 minutes.

Richard capped a 70-69 win with a layup with just 4.8 seconds to play. He finished with a game-high tying 22 points, four rebounds and three steals.

Richard gives Florida as formidable a guard trio as there is in the conference. Richard, Clayton and Martin combined for 40 points on a night when the Gamecocks, who have yet to win an SEC game (10-9, 0-6), seemed certain to pull off the upset.

Games to Watch

Texas A&M at Texas, Saturday. ESPN2. The two old Big 12 rivals have already played once this season, breaking a drought that began in 2011-12 after the Aggies left for the SEC. It was the first SEC game for the Longhorns, who have won six of the last eight games between the two.

Kentucky at Vanderbilt, Saturday, ESPN2. Through the years, playing in Nashville has never been easy for the mighty Wildcats. Vanderbilt, quickly revitalized under first-year coach Mark Byington, has already taken out a top-10-ranked SEC team at home (Tennessee). Kentucky players will get a look at that game video.

Tennessee at Auburn (ESPN2). There’s no doubt former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl takes a certain amount of pleasure in beating the school that fired him. Tennessee is a generally good road team but so far this season has lost two SEC games away from home. The Vols haven’t fared well at Auburn in Pearl’s 10 years there, but then again, not many other teams have, either.