If anyone knows the power of a 14th seed, it's the guy who wound up upside down. In 1987, Dick Vitale said on ESPN that he'd stand on his head if Austin Peay, seeded No. 14, upset Illinois, seeded No. 3, in the NCAA tournament. Austin Peay did and Vitale fulfilled his promise, and 21 years later here's what the famous voice said of the most prominent 14th seed in this bracket:

"I pick [Georgia] to win that game ... If you can beat Kentucky and Mississippi State in the same day, why can't you beat Xavier?"

FRANK NIEMEIR / AJC (ENLARGE)

Georgia was on the receiving end in 1997 in the last game for coach Tubby Smith.

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Even as the Big Dance commences in earnest Thursday, the basketball world is still trying to get its arms around what Georgia just did. A team that had won four conference games in two months captured the SEC tournament by winning four games in four days, two of the victories coming on one surreal Saturday, the final three on Georgia Tech's floor.

Said Larry Conley, the former Kentucky player and longtime SEC television analyst: "It ranks right up there with the most amazing stories in the history of the SEC."

Said Vitale: "When you're thinking about the greatest runs ever, you have to start with George Mason [which reached the 2006 Final Four as a No. 11 seed] — that was simply incredible. But after that, you've got to think about [Georgia]. They were 4-12 in the conference, and they won two games in one day. I can't rank anything much higher than this."

Now the Bulldogs have a chance to make history of another sort. They enter the NCAAs as the lowest-seeded team from a major conference in tournament history. The cumulative record of No. 14 seeds is 17-92, and only two — Cleveland State in 1986 and Tennessee-Chattanooga in 1997 — have survived Round 2 to advance to the Sweet 16. (Both then lost, Cleveland State to Navy and David Robinson, UTC to Providence and God Shammgod.)

The No. 3 seed that Chattanooga felled 11 years ago was Georgia, coached by Tubby Smith in his last game before moving to Kentucky. (The Mocs then upset Illinois, guided by Lon Kruger, in Round 2.) Mack McCarthy, then UTC's coach and now coach at East Carolina, offered this prescription of hope for 14th seeds:

"You've got to catch a No. 3 seed that really isn't a No. 3 but played its way into that seeding late in the year, like Georgia did [in 1997]. You've got to have an experienced club either in terms of age or tournament experience — both if you're lucky. And then — and in college basketball this gets easier every year — you've got to run into somebody without a true center. If you have all that, you've got a chance to catch lightning in a bottle."

Only once before has Xavier been seeded as high as No. 3 — in 2003, when it beat 14th-seeded Troy in Round 1 and was ousted by sixth-seeded Maryland in Round 2. The Musketeers have been a 14th seed three times, most recently in 2006, and in 1991 they upset third-seeded Nebraska.

Xavier won 17 of 18 games from Dec. 28 to March 1 but has since lost twice to St. Joseph's, most recently in the Atlantic-10 semifinals. It lists no true center on the roster, and its best players — Drew Lavender and Stanley Burrell — are guards.

And Georgia, which starts two seniors and two juniors, will have something working for it that no No. 14 ever has: The Bulldogs won't be awed because they hail from a power conference. "That's a huge point," McCarthy said. "They've got a great pedigree. I know they were 4-12, but they still played an SEC schedule."

Lake Kelly coached Austin Peay to its upset of Illinois in 1987. From afar, he detects similarities between his Governors and these Bulldogs. "I always watch the 14th seeds with plenty of interest," Kelly said. "I see Georgia as a lot like us — not great talent, but a good team."

Austin Peay toppled Illinois 68-67 behind an outrageous combination of 3-pointers and power moves from Darryl Bedford, a 6-foot-8, 260-pound center from Campbell High in Smyrna. Bedford tried 15 treys that night, making five.

Kelly, who's retired and living in Flemingsburg, Ky., said "not a day" passes without him recalling that epic night, which very nearly became an epic week. In Round 2 Austin Peay lost to Providence, coached by Rick Pitino, in overtime after missing two free throws in the final minute of regulation. (Billy Donovan hit the tying jumper for the Friars.) Said Kelly: "Somebody said to me, 'If you guys win that game, Pitino is still at Providence today.' "

The season done, Kelly invited Vitale to speak at the team banquet. Arriving in Clarksville, Tenn., he was greeted by Peay players wearing sweatshirts with their names printed upside down.

"Then they said, 'You know we have to do this,' " Kelly said. "And they grabbed him by the ankles and held him upside down."

Kelly, who'd been an assistant at Kentucky under Joe B. Hall, watched Georgia win its conference tournament via TV. "Those people who got to see the SEC games were looking at basketball history," he said. "I don't think we'll see anything like that again. It just shows what kids can do when they put their heart into it."

Question is, how much do the Bulldogs have left? "I don't know what their emotional state will be," said McCarthy, an Auburn assistant in 1985 when the Tigers became the first SEC tournament champion to win four games in four days. "That will determine the kind of game it's going to be against Xavier."

Dickie V. thinks Georgia will win. Conley, who covered the Bulldogs several times during the regular season and throughout their tournament run, admits to filling out his NCAA bracket and picking them to lose.

"But I'm also the guy who didn't think they'd win a game in the SEC tournament," Conley said. "Maybe we should start believing they can actually do this."