Florida coach Todd Golden had people yelling at him at half-time on Thursday night to get 2.36m tall center Olivier Rioux in the game.
Golden relented with 2 minutes, 9 seconds to play — and made history in the process — after chants of “We Want Ollie” swept through the O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida.
Rioux became the tallest person to ever play college 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 so much attention from the Ospreys that he did not even touch the ball.
Photo: AP
“It felt great,” Rioux said. “The support from everybody was amazing, even on the bench and even the fans. I think everybody supported me. I’m very grateful.”
Asked about making history, Rioux said: “It’s another day, I guess.”
Rioux made everyone in attendance smile. Even North Florida forward Trey Cady smirked when he measured himself against Rioux. Cady was giving up more than 30cm in the matchup.
“There’s people yelling at me at halftime about playing him,” Golden said. “I’m like: ‘Listen, it will happen. The time will come.’”
Rioux is 5cm taller than former NBA giants Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol, and about 7cm taller than popular big men Yao Ming, Tacko Fall and Shawn Bradley. He already owned a spot in the Guinness record book when he signed with Florida last year.
Golden gave Rioux the option of playing sparingly last season or taking a redshirt season and working on his game. Rioux chose the latter. Nonetheless, he was a walking viral video, from riding his bike on campus and ducking under every doorway to cutting down nets while standing flat-footed during Florida’s NCAA Tournament run.
“He’s put in a lot of great work,” Golden said. “To his credit, he’s kept a great attitude without getting a lot of reward in terms of playing time and opportunity.”
Golden had made it clear that Rioux would only play late in blowouts, the result of having all four frontcourt players returning, but Olivier doubled down on wanting to be at Florida and welcomed the challenge of playing against Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu, and Micah Handlogten in practice and behind them in games.
“I talked to the guys at halftime when we’re up 24 and I expressed to them the importance of getting off to a really good start so we can get some of the younger guys and some of the guys from down on the bench an opportunity to play and to get some rip,” Golden said. “Obviously the game was in our control and thought it would be a good opportunity to get him out there and get his first college experience, and I think he was pretty excited.
“It was pretty neat for him to finally see the floor,” he added.
Fans delivered the loudest ovation of the game — second only to Florida unveiling its championship banner during pregame introductions — when Golden motioned to Rioux at the end of the bench. Rioux pulled off his long-sleeved T-shirt and hustled to the scorer’s table to check in.
Teammates and coaches celebrated wildly, and fans screamed every time the ball got near Rioux. He would have to wait until his next outing to actually touch it.
“So much fun,” Handlogten said. “When he was checking into the game, I kind of stopped him and I was like: ’Play with confidence. You’ve worked your butt off for two years now to get to this spot. Now’s your moment. This is your time to shine.’”
“To see him out there running up and down the court with a little smile on his face, it was really good to see,” he added.
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