The Secret to the Auburn Tigers' Sensational Success

They’re the number one team in the country with a secret weapon. Down on the Plains in Auburn, Coach Bruce Pearl has the Tigers ready for March Madness. And it all started with a team bible study that has the players growing off the court as much as they’re dominating on it.

“This year I’ve seen my teammates grow the most and I think because really just everybody being vulnerable,” says Dylan Cardwell, Auburn Senior Center. “And you know we just started being open, we started talking about our sins and praying through it and helping people through it and being a community, being the church.”

Will Dawson: What has it meant for you to have a team Bible study for you guys to have a brotherhood, not just on the court but also off the court too?

Chaney Johnson, Auburn Forward: “I mean that’s big. It just shows God is working and it’s giving him another avenue to work his powers through the whole team, because I mean without God we wouldn’t be number one in the country right now.”

Dawson: What has it been like to be with a group of guys that can connect, not just with chemistry on the court, but in their walk with Christ and in their faith as well?

Denver Jones, Auburn Guard: “Man, it’s great and I feel like that’s what makes us a lot closer just because we know things about them, personal things that you just wouldn’t really share out in the public with anyone. Everybody prays. We pick a different person to pray each and every time just so every one of us can be basically comfortable just praying out loud and praying alongside individuals. So that’s why I feel like our brotherhood has really made us closer right there.”

In 2019, Coach Pearl led Auburn to the school’s first ever Final Four. This year, Auburn may be the best team in college basketball. Some of the players would love the opportunity to return to the Final Four to use that platform to glorify God.

“I just want the biggest platform to spread the gospel and being a light for God,” says Cardwell. “I couldn’t care less about winning the championship, the national championship. I just want to be there as a team just so we can have that platform. That’s the biggest platform in college basketball. It’s four teams. All of America is watching and how great of an opportunity would it be for this team and for us to go and spread the gospel and be examples?”

“This program is a lot bigger than just me. I just know it means a lot for the fans, especially for Coach B.P. like he’s been to the Final Four once, but I feel like this year we actually have a chance to really win it. Throughout my basketball journey like one thing that I really want to do is to glorify Jesus’s name and everything I do,” says Jones.

Dawson: What is your ultimate goal with this platform that you've been given? 

Johnson: “Create disciples and allow my walk to inspire others. Allow the way I move to inspire others allow the way I talk and treat people to inspire others. I mean though my goal is to go to the NBA, I just also pray to God like, ‘Allow your will to be done. Allow me to be living in your will,’ so I mean if his will in my life is hang up the shoes after this season, like I mean it's his will not mine so I’m just having fun and enjoying every moment he's allowing me to have.”

Regardless of their success in this year’s NCAA tournament, this collection of players are proudly representing Auburn University and the One that gave them all of their abilities.

“I think the Lord just blessed me with an insane amount of joy and I just want people to see that that same amount of joy is accessible to you,” says Cardwell. “Anybody can have that amount of joy. He has saved me from myself, he saved me from my flesh, he saved me from you know, weapons that have formed against me, he saved me from so much and so like I can't live without him. I can't author my life the way he has I can't protect myself from the unseen and the seen like he has and so for me he means everything.”

Denver Jones says, “I just know my struggles and what I've been through and he's been with me every step of the way. He's answered every prayer request that I ever had and so I just feel like our relationship is very important and I just really don't have no reason or no doubt in my mind about him.”

Dawson: Why is it important for you to glorify God?

Johnson: “He gave us this platform I would be nothing without him so why not give him glory? I don't like, okay I work hard, but God is the reason I have the body, God is the reason I have the mentality I have, God put me on this planet to do what I have to do so why not give him the glory? He created us, he blesses us he does all those things for us so why not give him the glory?”