GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach Todd Golden had folks yelling at him at halftime Thursday night time to get 7-foot-9 heart Olivier Rioux within the sport.
Golden relented with 2:09 to play – and made historical past within the course of – after chants of “We Need Ollie” swept via the O’Connell Middle.
Rioux turned the tallest individual to ever play school basketball when he made his debut in a 104-64 victory over North Florida. Rioux, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman from Canada and the world’s tallest teenager, drew a lot consideration from the Ospreys that he did not even contact the ball.
“It felt nice,” Rioux mentioned. “The assist from everyone was superb, even on the bench and even the followers. I believe everyone supported me. I am very grateful.”
When requested about making historical past, Rioux quipped: “It is one other day, I suppose.”
Rioux made everybody in attendance smile. Even North Florida ahead Trey Cady smirked when he measured himself towards Rioux. Cady was giving up greater than a foot within the matchup.
“There’s folks yelling at me at halftime about taking part in him,” Golden mentioned. “I am like, ‘Pay attention, it can occur. The time will come.'”
Rioux is 2 inches (5 centimeters) taller than former NBA giants Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol, and three inches taller than fashionable huge males Yao Ming, Tacko Fall and Shawn Bradley. He already owned a spot within the Guinness document e-book when he signed with Florida in 2024.
Golden gave Rioux the choice of taking part in sparingly final season or taking a redshirt season and dealing on his sport. Rioux selected the latter. Nonetheless, he was a strolling viral video, from using his bike on campus, to ducking underneath each doorway, to reducing down nets whereas standing flat-footed throughout Florida’s NCAA Match run.
“He is put in a number of nice work,” Golden mentioned. “To his credit score, he is saved an amazing perspective with out getting a number of reward when it comes to taking part in time and alternative.”
Golden had made it clear that Rioux would solely play late in blowouts, the results of having all 4 frontcourt gamers returning. However Olivier doubled down on desirous to be at Florida and welcomed the problem of taking part in towards Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu, and Micah Handlogten in observe and behind them in video games.
“I talked to the blokes at halftime after we’re up 24 and I expressed to them the significance of getting off to a very good begin so we will get a number of the youthful guys and a number of the guys from down on the bench a chance to play and to get some rip,” Golden mentioned. “Clearly the sport was in our management and thought it could be a superb alternative to get him on the market and get his first school expertise, and I believe he was fairly excited.
“It was fairly neat for him to lastly see the ground.”
Followers delivered the loudest ovation of the sport – second solely to Florida unveiling its championship banner throughout pregame introductions – when Golden motioned to Rioux on the finish of the bench. Rioux pulled off his long-sleeved T-shirt and hustled to the scorer’s desk to examine in.
Teammates and coaches celebrated wildly, and followers screamed each time the ball received close to Rioux. He’ll have to attend till his subsequent outing to really contact it.
“A lot enjoyable,” Handlogten mentioned. “When he was checking into the sport, I sort of stopped him and I used to be like, ‘Play with confidence. You’ve got labored your butt off for 2 years now to get to this spot. Now’s your second. That is your time to shine.
“To see him on the market operating up and down the courtroom with slightly smile on his face, it was actually good to see.”