The 14,788 fans that came to Thompson-Boling Arena Monday evening to catch the first steps of UT’s NCAA tournament dreams probably didn’t realize that a dream came true in front of them.

But for Victory University’s Nathan Guess, a senior guard from Memphis, that was exactly the case.

“Normal people, at some point, throw up their hands and say ‘this isn’t meant to be,’” said Kurt Brown, Guess’s high school coach.

But Guess isn’t normal — at least the path he took to college basketball isn’t — and the only hands he was throwing up Monday were in an attempt to guard Tennessee’s Jordan McRae.

Rewind to homeschool basketball practices in 2007 and Brown, along with Guess’s other coach, Andreus Shannon, would not have believed that their scrawny left-handed shooting guard would one day find himself gracing the court at Thompson-Boling Arena.

“No,” Shannon said with a chuckle. “My hope for him was probably walking on somewhere, probably NAIA level.”

“I knew Nathan could shoot and I knew he had the heart for it,” Brown said. “But him in a major place against a Division I school one day — eh, that wasn’t really crossing my mind at the time.”

For Guess, the notion of playing against SEC competition — something he’s now done three times — was even more far-fetched.

“I would have said that you were smoking crack,” Guess said. “I never would have believed you in a million years.”

Guess originally enrolled at Crichton College where it was agreed that he would play his sophomore year, but before he could see the court, the school was shut down due to financial troubles, and he was forced to bounce his dream to Blue Mountain College in Mississippi.

Though he made the team, he was asked to do what he had done the previous year — sit out a season, this time as a redshirt, meaning two consecutive years without touching the court for Guess.

“Man, the day that he told me I was redshirting, I knew I was going to be able to play the next year,” Guess said. “But still I was really depressed, and thought about quitting … but my brother said ‘Look, if you quit now, you’ll always have regrets. I’ll support you whatever you do, but this is a passion of yours and if you quit now you’ll always regret that.’ ”

In customary fashion, Guess kept at it, deciding that it was worth voluntarily waking up at 5 a.m. every day to hit the gym, even though he wouldn’t see game action.

“I usually got 1,000 shots a day,” Guess said. “I wanted to perfect that part of my game because I know I’m short, and I’m not that quick and so I wanted something that could be automatic.”

That same season — while he nailed down his shot as a redshirt player at a school with an enrollment of just over 400 in rural Mississippi — Skylar McBee, a player to whom Guess says he is similar, hit a game-winning shot in the national spotlight against the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks.

Before Guess could hit a game-winning shot of his own, or even a single shot at all, the BMC coach resigned and left his future in the hands of a new coach.

Meanwhile, a former University of Memphis graduate assistant Scott Robinson was organizing the basketball team for a new school called Victory that would operate in place of the defunct Crichton.

“When we started the program, Nate came to me and was asking about being on the team and all that,” Robinson said. “And he was very persistent and I want those type of guys.”

In 2010-11, his third year of college, Guess played for the first time, even seeing action against Arkansas.

Following the season, Guess was awarded a scholarship.

Last year he posted nine points in a game at Auburn while seeing regular action as a shooting guard for the Eagles.

“All of my hard work really came into fruition. It was amazing. I’m truly blessed beyond measure to live out my dreams.”

Robinson said the experience of playing at Tennessee will benefit his team both from an experience standpoint and financially.

As for Guess, the opportunity to play against SEC competition — a foresight that he associated with smoking crack five years ago — is nothing short of a dream come true.

Guess played the game’s final seven minutes Monday, tallying six points on two three pointers in Victory’s 99-57 loss.

“Man, it felt great I can’t lie, but I’m also a competitor I want to play all 40 minutes and win,” Guess told The Daily Beacon after the game.

“But to get an experience like this is amazing and I’m thankful.”