The two-time defending national champion Florida Gators are back in the Top 25.

The young Gators checked in at No. 20 after a 5-1 conference start that has included road wins at Alabama and South Carolina – and home victories over Auburn, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

Florida coach Billy Donovan won’t take the bait on whether this year’s team has surprised him.

"I want us to be the beat team we can be, but I don’t know where that can lead us,” Donovan said. "I feel like we’re leaning and we’ve gotten a lot better.”

Donovan and his staff love the players – the character of the kids and also the even-keel attitude they’ve displayed since the first preseason game. Donovan said this year’s group is completely different than the emotional team led by Joakim Noah, Taurean Green and Corey Brewer.

"I don’t see a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “I don’t see the emotional swings.”

He has also been impressed with their resiliency, coming back from deficits against Alabama, Auburn and even challenging at Ole Miss after trailing by 16 at one point.

"Usually, when things are going well for young guys, they don’t know to fight through it,” he said.

The Gators were realistically a coin-flip on whether they’d make the NCAA tournament this season. Now they’ve put themselves in a position to where they would need a major nose-dive in the second half of the SEC campaign.

The next few games will be pivotal: Donovan’s team will head to Arkansas, where he will face one of his best friends, first-year Razorbacks head coach John Pelphrey. Then it’s off to Tennessee.

Donovan has taken a page from his buddy, New England Patriots head man Bill Belichick, in that he does a nice job of not giving a whole lot of information and building up his team.

That’s why we turned to Gators assistant Larry Shyatt for more insight.

"If there was a team that people would have expected to be upset in November or December by anybody, people probably would have picked us because we’re so young and inexperienced,” Shyatt said.

"But our guys have been eager to listen to Billy and eager to please him. When he speaks, they’re on pins and needles,” Shyatt added. “Am I surprised?  Absolutely. I don’t think anyone planned on us being at the point where we’re at.”

ACC MEDIOCRITY

I’m not sure I’ve seen the ACC this jumbled after North Carolina and Duke.

You’ve got seven teams within a 1 ½-games of each other. You can’t count out Miami (2-4), Florida State (2-5) or even Virginia (1-4) from making a run to third place in the league.

The bottom line is it’s difficult to imagine a situation where the ACC gets more than four teams this season.

Boston College currently sits in third place with a 3-2 mark, but the Eagles face North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Thursday and still have Duke on the road and UNC at home left on the slate.

Virginia Tech has the most favorable schedule left and the Hokies are 4-3 in conference play. Seth Greenberg’s team has already played Duke and has North Carolina left on the road.

TIN MAN CHANGING TECH’S FORTUNES

How about the fact that Georgia Tech’s former walk-on guard Matt Causey has been the major reason why the Yellow Jackets are back in the ACC race.

Causey, who spent one season at Georgetown before playing a pair with his brother at D-2 North Georgia, has turned in consecutive 18-point performances after a 30-point output against Virginia Tech to put Georgia Tech at 3-3 in league play.

Causey’s nickname is the Tin Man because the joke is that he needs to be oiled up prior to each game because he’s basically playing on one leg. ``The other basically doesn’t have any cartilage left,” Hewitt said.

The bottom line is that Casuey’s fearless approach and willingness to take the big shot (he had 12 points in overtime against Virginia on Sunday) has rubbed off on his teammates.

"He’s making big plays and that’s one of the things this team was lacking,” Hewitt said.

RANDOM NOTES: Stopped by to see Hartford coach Dan Leibovitz the other day prior to the UConn-Louisville game and you’d never know that the even-keeled second-year head coach has arguably the biggest week of his season on tap. Hartford (4-3) takes on first-place Binghamton (6-2) next week after a matchup with Vermont (5-2) tonight. … According to Scout.com’s Evan Daniels, one of the nation’s top shooters, Oregon native Brad Tinsley, was released from his letter-of-intent by Pepperdine in the wake of Vance Walberg’s departure. Tinsley considered Utah and Cal the first time around and landed at Pepperdine largely because of his relationship with Waves assistant Mark Campbell.