World's tallest teenager Olivier Rioux makes collegiate basketball history for Florida Gators
The Florida Gators were up big in the fourth quarter of their win over North Florida on Thursday, yet fans had one big request for head coach Todd Golden.
They wanted to see Olivier Rioux, the world’s tallest teenager at 7-foot-9, make his collegiate debut, as chants of "We want Ollie!" swept through the arena.
Golden granted the vociferous crowd’s wish with 2:09 left to play in the game when he inserted Rioux. In Rioux’s two minutes of action, he didn’t even touch the ball because of the attention he commanded.
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"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."
Rioux’s appearance lit the whole arena up. Even North Florida forward Trey Cady smirked when he measured himself against a towering redshirt freshman. Rioux became the tallest player ever to step on the court in college basketball history.
When asked about making history, Rioux quipped, "It’s another day, I guess."
Golden said the requests for Rioux to come into the game began at halftime.
"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 2 inches (5 centimeters) taller than former NBA giants Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol, and 3 inches taller than popular big men Yao Ming, Tacko Fall and Shawn Bradley.
Golden credited the Canadian native for his work ethic despite not getting a lot of playing time.
"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 stressed the importance to his players at halftime of building a big lead, so young players like Rioux could get a chance to play.
"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."
Rioux’s next chance to get on the floor is when the Gators take on Florida State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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