For decades, the University of Florida men's basketball team wasn't much of a factor. But when it hired Billy Donovan to be its head coach in 1996, things started to turn around.
Since the turn of the century, the Gators have reached the NCAA Tournament 20 times, and it is just a calendar year removed from winning the national championship. Overall, 41 of its players have been drafted into the NBA, including Bradley Beal and Al Horford.
Three of those players were selected by the Los Angeles Lakers. Here is a look at each of them.
Joe Hobbs -- guard
Hobbs averaged 19.6 points a game in three years with the Gators and was taken by the Lakers in the ninth round of the 1958 draft. He never played in the league.
Brooks Henderson -- guard
Henderson spent three years at the University of Florida
and put up 15.2 points and 5.5 rebounds a game during that time. After the Lakers took him in the fourth round of the 1965 draft, he didn't play in the NBA.
Gary Keller -- center/power forward
Keller registered 14.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in his three years with the Gators. He was selected in the sixth round of the 1967 NBA Draft, and he instead opted to play in the American Basketball Association (ABA). In two seasons there, he averaged six points and 4.5 rebounds in 14 minutes a game.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Every University of Florida player drafted by the Lakers
