His boss is a North Carolina grad, so Georgia alumnus and Washington D.C. resident Dan Judy knew he wouldn't have any trouble getting off work Thursday to watch his Dawgs in their NCAA Tournament first round game at the Verizon Center.

"He," Judy emphasized, "has an appreciation for college basketball."

There is plenty of newfound appreciation for Georgia basketball in the nation's capital this week thanks to the Bulldogs' improbable SEC tournament triumph and the resulting, rare post-season appearance.

The school has about 3,000 alumni in the Washington area, making it one of UGA's biggest bases of support outside Georgia. But until now, football, not basketball, was the reason many got together in sports bars and elsewhere to connect with fellow grads and celebrate membership in Bulldog Nation.

Just how much things changed in a short time was seen Tuesday night when the team arrived at its downtown hotel shortly before midnight. About two dozen UGA alumni were there to serenade them with a recorded version of the school fight song. The lobby was decorated with Georgia banners and flags.

"I think they were shocked to see the welcome wagon," said Valerie Elston, a 2004 graduate working in public relations.

As Elson explained, "We've always used football as a way to draw alumni in the area because there is so much pride and spirit there. It's not quite the same with other sports, but I'm really hoping this will show we're not just a football school, but a basketball school, too."

You don't have to convince staffers in U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson's office. Eleven employees, about half of them UGA graduates, bought tickets and will take the afternoon off to attend the game, said press secretary Sheridan Watson, class of 2001.

Isakson can't go, she added. With Congress in recess, he is back in Georgia and will watch on TV.

Watson terms her own devotion to Georgia basketball as "sporadic." She had season tickets to Stegeman Coliseum when she was a junior but hasn't followed the team closely since then. Basketball-centered alumni get-togethers, she noted, are infrequent.

Most Washington alumni who wanted to get tickets to the game were successful, Elston said. Many others, she said, will watch the game at a sports bar near the arena, complete with pre-game and post-game parties.

Then there are those like Aeron Premo whose job at an economic consulting firm won't allow her to attened the game live, or watch it on TV.

"I'm disappointed," the 2004 graduate said, "but I have the Internet. I can check on it."

Premo called the Bulldogs weekend run "an unbelievable feat," a sentiment shared by D.C.-area alumni.

Judy, a political consultant who graduated in 2000, likened it to the Braves making the playoffs in 1991 because of its sudden, unexpected nature.

"It's been an amazing sequence of events," he said. "A miracle, really, the way it all unfolded from the big losing streak going into the (SEC) tournament to the tornado, to playing on Georgia Tech's home floor."

Now, Judy and other locals can see the next part of the story in person.

"The game being in D.C.," he said, "is just icing on the cake. "It truly is one of those situations where I'm just happy to be there."