Florida Gators sign Lithuanian forward Arturas Butajevas

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators coach Todd Golden has once again landed another international player. The latest addition to his roster is Lithuanian forward Arturas Butajevas.

The 6-foot-10 Butajevas is 19 years old and joins UF as a freshman for the 2026-27 season.

“We are very excited to have Arturas join our program,” Golden said. “He is a physical and athletic frontcourt player that has already proven to be highly capable during both international and youth competition. He is a hard worker who will fit seamlessly within our program upon arrival. We are looking forward to him arriving and starting workouts with our team this summer.”

Butajevas has extensive experience with the Lithuanian national program, most recently averaging 13.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists at the 2025 FIBA U18 EuroBasket. He scored 25 points and grabbed 16 rebounds against Greece.

Butajevas played in 2025-26 with Unicaja Malaga in Spain, where he averaged 15.6 points and 7.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 27.6 minutes for the U22 team.

Butajevas also competed in the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup (14.4 ppg, 11.3 rpg) and the 2023 FIBA U16 European Championship (15.6 ppg, 9.9 rpg).

Some highlights from one of his recent games are below.

Butajevas will be the latest in a long list of players that Golden has added from overseas. UF currently has Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon, Urban Klavzar, Alex Kovatchev and Viktor Mikic on the roster.

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