Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators started off the season unranked but turned some heads after a 20 day stretch of 8-0, and also moving them up to the No. 10 spot in the AP poll on Monday.

Florida will play No. 7 Syracuse (7-0) this Thursday in the SEC-Big East Invitational at the St. Pete Times Forum. The Gators lost to Syracuse last year but not by much, and this year I think they should be able to give up a better fight even without Guard Ray Shipman (mid foot sprain) and center Kenny Kadji (lower back) who are both still questionable for this Thursday.

This is just the second week that they have been ranked since last January, and coach Donovan doesn’t know how his team might react by all of the good things that are being seen so far this year. Hopefully they don’t get all big headed going into this invitation just because they are undefeated and ranked 10, they got a heck of a ball game coming up Thursday.

“All this is very, very fragile,” Donovan said. “Winning is very fragile, success is very fragile. And I think if you embrace it, or think you have it figured out, or think it’s easy, that’s when you really put yourself in a position of being extremely vulnerable.”

The game will tip-off at 9:00 pm and will be televised on ESPN.

(Quote gathered by Antonya English from Gator report.)