KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chuma Okeke was in the middle of the game of his life.

The Auburn sophomore forward has had a lot of games like that in his career. People in the Auburn sphere who have watched him all season have known it for a while. The rest of the country learned that Friday as Okeke did what he normally does.

He scored inside and out. He defended multiple North Carolina players and swatted Nassir Little's fastbreak layup attempt in Sportscenter Top 10 style. He matched up against Tar Heel legend Luke Maye and didn't just hold his own — he won the matchup.

Everybody knew it.

So when Okeke went down with 8:08 to play, and started slapping the floor, writhing in pain, a raucous Sprint Center crowd, packed full with North Carolina, Kentucky, Houston and Auburn fans, fell silent. The best player on the floor, amid the best game of his career — a 20-point, 11-rebound performance with eight minutes left in the Sweet 16 — looked really hurt.

Bryce Brown covered his face with his jersey. Many players on Auburn's bench fell into their seats, staring blankly at what they'd just seen. Eventually, the Auburn sideline gathered together and went to Okeke to form a prayer circle around him. They said a prayer. They told him they loved him.

North Carolina's entire unit on the floor ran over to console Okeke as he was helped off the floor. The sea of Carolina blue stood up and gave Okeke the standing ovation he so rightfully deserved after a moment he so wrongfully didn't.

"I just hated to see my brother go down," Brown, Okeke's roommate, said. "It really hurt me. It really hurt to see him go down. I seen how much pain he was in. It didn't only hurt me. It hurt the whole team. You could see it on all of our faces."

When Okeke went down, Auburn only led by 13. North Carolina hit an immediate bucket to cut it to 11. Many teams would've caved. Seeing your best player on his best night going down can take the life out of the team.

Auburn let it do the opposite.

Brown said Bruce Pearl knew Brown was upset. He could see it in his face. Pearl looked Brown dead in the eye with a simple message: "Go win this for Chuma." Brown didn't need to hear anything else. No one did.

Auburn ultimately pulled away with a 17-point victory, its second straight demolition of a perennial powerhouse program. This time, it meant bouncing the first No. 1 seed from the NCAA Tournament. It meant Auburn's second Elite Eight appearance in program history. There were some hugs and some chest bumps. Brown and Malik Dunbar greeted the Auburn faithful cheerfully as they tend to do.

Then, only one thing was on everyone's mind: Find Chuma.

The entire team raced back to the Auburn locker room. They knew Okeke's status wasn't promising. When they reached Okeke, that feeling was only reinforced. But they all had something to say to Auburn's most versatile standout.

"We ran right to him. Every last person," Samir Doughty said. "I just told him I love him. We're here for him."

"It's bigger than basketball. Chuma is a primary brother of ours. We wanted to come in and check on him, and that's all we wanted to do," Horace Spencer said. "We're here for you. We're going to play for you. We love you. That's all I needed to say. Now, we're just playing for Chuma."

"I told him I loved him, that we're here for him," Jared Harper said. "That's one of my brothers. I love him like he's my own blood brother."

That emotion made its way all the way to the head coach.

Pearl choked up during his post-game CBS interview when asked about Okeke. He couldn't find the words to describe what it meant to lose someone like Okeke — the humblest of college basketball superstars. To lose a member of the Auburn family, in that moment, in that historic game, devastated Pearl and everyone else in the locker room.

When they returned to the locker room, everyone huddled together and prayed twice, Brown said. The tears were still clear on players' faces 20 minutes after 97-80 win.

Tears returned to Pearl's eyes and he recollected the moment Okeke was assisted over to the big bracket in the locker room to place Auburn's name in the Elite Eight.

"What was really neat about us getting together, what I said to our team was, 'We lost the best player on the floor tonight.' Not one player went, 'What about me?' They were all like, 'Yep, yep. 5 was the best player out there.' He was the toughest matchup. No feelings hurt," Pearl said. "They respect how hard Chuma's worked. He gives us a lot of courage because there haven't been many nights when he lost his matchup. ... As you guys could tell from being in the locker room, it's pretty subdued. We have a heavy heart because we lost one of our brothers. My heart does ache for him. You could see the minute he got hurt, he knew it was pretty serious."

Okeke's specific status isn't official, but Pearl's insinuations paint the picture.

He called Okeke's injury what he believes to be "serious." Brown and Harper both spoke about what they think it's going to take to replace someone with as significant of a role as Okeke. It's safe to assume he won't be available for Auburn's Elite Eight matchup on Sunday. Based on initial indications, his recovery will likely take much more time that.

Okeke is a nearly impossible piece to replace. He's one of Auburn's central figures in the offense. He's the most versatile defender on the team — maybe in the entire country. A 30-minute-per-game guy like Okeke will require a solution-by-committee. It'll mean more minutes for Danjel Purifoy, Anfernee McLemore, Horace Spencer and Austin Wiley. It might even mean Malik Dunbar sees some time at power forward.

More than anything, it will mean Auburn must find some kind of emotional response to this heartbreak after such a program-changing win. It means Auburn must find a way to do what they all said in the locker room: Play for Chuma.

"Of course we were down just losing our brother. We're a very close team. I say that, and I don't think people understand how much of a close team we are. We love on one another. He got injured, and I just saw people were crying. We were hurting for our teammate," Harper said. "We know Chuma wants to be out there as much as anybody. All the things he's able to do and provide for his team. It hurt us, but it's motivation going forward."

"I feel like a celebration tonight won't be as sweet because we're missing one of our soldiers. It's going to hurt, but I feel like it's going to lift us up at the same time simply because when we lose someone like that, we just want to lift him up and make him feel like he's out there," Brown said. "Winning the whole thing would definitely make him happy."