Coach Billy Donovan and the rest of his crew received 53 votes in the AP Men’s college basketball poll on Thursday, ranking them No. 34 in the Country.

It’s a whole different team from a few years ago. All new faces, different talent, few new assistants. I never before saw Florida ranked as far as they are now, but you can’t be a powerhouse every single year. Florida is still in that “rebuilding stage”. The Gators return nine players from last years team, only three starters out of the nine that appeared in the N.I.T quarterfinals.

Teams who are ranked in the SEC, Kentucky who is going to be pretty solid this year along with a great coach are ranked No. 4. Bruce Pearl and the Vols are ranked No. 10, and Mississippi State is set at No. 18. Those are the teams from the SEC who are ranked in the AP top 25.

Florida still can move up into the top 25 the first few weeks of the season. They go against Florida State on Nov. 24 which is just around the corner and then they are taking a trip to Atlantic City, NJ to face No. 2 Michigan State on Nov. 27. That’s going to be a real test for the Gators, it’s really going to show coach Donovan where they stand at early in the year and what things that need to be fixed in order to be able to compete in the NCAA tournament this year. The team is real young and I’m not sure if they are a NCAA tournament type team this minute, but with one of the best coaches in the country and a bunch of hard working kids can definitely get you far.

The Gators open up their first exhibition game against St. Leo’s on Monday, then on Nov. 15 they host Stetson at the O’Connell Center for their season opener. This year is going to be real exciting and I’m looking forward to it.