The Florida Gators released the following statement.

University of Florida point guard Nick Calathes was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 45th pick in the NBA Draft on Thursday night. Calathes became the 13th Gator drafted under head coach Billy Donovan.

Calathes became the third Gator since 2007 to be drafted by the Timberwolves, joining Corey Brewer (1st round, 7th overall pick in 2007) and Chris Richard (2nd round, 41st overall pick in 2007).

He has already signed a professional deal with Panathinaikos, a powerful Euroleague team in Greece, putting his NBA career on hold for the time being.

Florida has now had at least one player drafted six of the past seven years and the Gators have now had an SEC-leading 12 players drafted since 2000 alone.

Calathes led UF in scoring in each of his two seasons in Gainesville and was a First-Team All-SEC selection this season after sharing Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year honors a year ago.

He broke the school record for assists in each of his two seasons at UF, totaling 221 as a freshman and 231 this past season. He led the SEC in assists and assists per game both years. Over his two years at Florida he finished with 1,170 points, the highest freshman-sophomore total in Gator history.

Calathes led UF in scoring at 17.2 points per game, assists at 6.4 per contest and in steals with 68. He was the only player in the nation to average better than 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game last season.

Calathes had two triple-doubles in his career and is the only player in UF history to record multiple triple-doubles.