KANSAS CITY, Mo. – His left arm draped over teammate Anfernee McLemore for support, his injured left knee wrapped in ice, Chuma Okeke walked gingerly toward the bracket board in Auburn's locker room, formally stamping the Tigers' Elite Eight advancement.
Without Chuma, Auburn would not have made it this far.
Without Chuma, Auburn will now try to go even farther.
Wherever Okeke went in the aftermath of Auburn's 97-80 win vs. North Carolina, McLemore went with him.
No one knows better what Auburn's star sophomore is enduring than McLemore, whose sophomore season ended with a dislocated ankle and fractured shinbone at South Carolina last February.
"I know in his head he's going through a rollercoaster of emotions because I went through the same thing last year," said McLemore, who visited his teammate Friday night after the Tigers left Sprint Arena. "It's heartbreaking knowing that he's out."
Their greatest victory juxtaposed with an injury to a beloved and extraordinarily gifted teammate, Auburn's players processed Friday's events.
"Chuma's always the best player on the court every single night," said Samir Doughty, who scored 10 points against the Tar Heels, one of six Tigers in double figures. "He's always going to make great plays. He always makes the right play at all times, and he's just a great addition to this team. We wouldn't be here right now without him."
As usual, Okeke stuffed the stat sheet against North Carolina: 20 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a blocked shot before tearing his left ACL while driving with 8:08 remaining. Dr. James Andrews will repair Okeke's knee on Tuesday.
"Chuma was dominating the game," said Austin Wiley, who grabbed five rebounds in 5:37 of playing time. "He's a big reason why we got the win."
"That's one of my brothers," said Jared Harper, who scored nine points and had 11 assists. "I love him like he's my own blood brother. It's just going to give us another thing to push us going forward."
"He's definitely a pro, when you lose a pro, it's definitely going to be a factor," Doughty said. "We're just going to have that next-man-up mentality and move on to the next one."
Without Okeke in Sunday's Midwest Regional final against Kentucky, power forward Danjel Purifoy will be Auburn's "next man up."
"We got the win, we're going to the Elite Eight and one of our brothers is down," said Purifoy, who scored 12 points on 4 of 6 3-point attempts. "Right now the focus is keep him in our prayers and play for him."
"He's going to have to continue to step up if we're going to have a chance to advance," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said of Purifoy. "We will reshuffle the deck. It'll mean more Austin Wiley, it'll mean more Horace Spencer, it'll mean more Anfernee McLemore, more Danjel Purifoy. We still have four guys on the front line.
"We lost the best player on the floor tonight, and not one player went, 'What about me?' They were like, 'Yep. No. 5 was the best player out there. He was the toughest matchup.' They respect how hard Chuma's worked, and he gives us a lot of courage, because there haven't been many nights when he lost his matchup."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer