If the No. 23 Lady Bulldogs do their job this week at the SEC Tournament in Nashville, they should barely be able to stand afterward.

A loss to No. 3 Tennessee Sunday kept Georgia (21-8, 8-6 SEC) out of the top four seeds entering this week’s SEC Tournament, meaning the fifth-seeded Bulldogs will have to play four games in four days to capture a tournament title.

A daunting task for any of the 12 SEC teams, this problem is especially acute for a Lady Bulldogs squad in which starters have accounted for 80 percent of the team’s scoring and 76 percent of total minutes played this season.

Sophomore point guard Ashley Houts is leading the conference in minutes played per game with 36.4, but is ready to play a full 160 minutes if necessary next week.

“I don’t want to stay in there and hurt us,” Houts said. “I just want to be able to provide what this team needs.”

Houts has played all 40 minutes in four straight contests and nine of the team’s last 10.

While Houts is willing to play as long as is necessary, head coach Andy Landers cut practice down to an hour the week leading up to the tournament.

“Don’t be surprised if I don’t sub a little bit in ways that we haven’t done before, even if it’s just for a minute or two,” Landers said.

The Lady Bulldogs have reason to hope they will be able to substitute liberally, at least in their first round contest, as they open against twelfth-seeded Alabama (8-21, 1-13).

Behind a then season-high 25 points from Tasha Humphrey, the Lady Bulldogs defeated Alabama 71-53 at Stegeman Coliseum on Jan. 20.

If Georgia advances past the first round, the team will face fourth-seeded Kentucky (14-14, 8-6) in the quarterfinals, with a chance to avenge a 47-44 loss to the Lady Wildcats in Athens earlier this season.

Barring upsets, the Bulldogs hypothetically would advance to face top-seeded LSU (25-4, 14-0) in the semifinals and second-seeded Tennessee (27-2, 13-1) in the championship. Both the Tigers and Volunteers defeated Georgia in the regular season.

Landers has refused to discuss any potential matchups past the first round of tournament play, but because there is so little time between games to prepare for the next opponent, the Georgia coaching staff has spent the past week putting together advance game plans.

“There’s already a level of familiarity because we’ve played these teams,” Landers said. “But we’ll watch a little bit of tape, have a chance to meet, have a chance to walk through and get prepared.”

The Bulldogs have an agreement with Vanderbilt to use the Commodores’ facility to prepare between games, but the key for Landers remains “staying off our feet” as much as possible.

The last time Georgia received a No. 5 seed in the SEC Tournament was in 2004, when the Bulldogs fell to sixth-seeded Vanderbilt in the final, the only time in the last decade a team won four straight games to capture the title.