With the departure of Olivier Rioux, the Florida Gators basketball program has essentially lost a flashy car that can barely make it out of the garage.
After spending the first two seasons of his collegiate career at Florida, where he became the tallest player in NCAA history at 7-foot-9, CBS Sports basketball insider reports that Rioux is transferring to the University of California, Irvine.
He achieved that record after checking into the Gators’ 104-64 win over North Florida, logging the first two minutes of his collegiate career.
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“He’s, you know, put in a lot of great work and to his credit, he’s kept a great attitude without getting a lot of reward in terms of playing time and opportunity,” Gators head coach Todd Golden said after the game. “Excited for him to kind of finally get the opportunity to play in a game.”
A Look at His Time at Florida
Rioux first received national attention after Guinness World Records named him the tallest teenager in the world when he measured at 7-foot-5 in 2021.
That year, he helped the Canadian national team win a bronze medal at 2021 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship while averaging 8.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
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As a recruit, the Canadian native was ranked as a three-star recruit and the 55th-best center in the nation according to 247Sports composite rankings.
After sprouting to 7-foot-9 during his final year as a prospect at IMG Academy, the Canadian native joined Florida as a preferred walk-on ahead of the 2024-2025 season. Although he did not appear in any games during his true freshman campaign, he averaged 0.6 points, 0.5 rebounds and 0.1 assists while seeing action in 11 games last year.
While his time at Florida lacked many exciting moments, he drew national attention during the NCAA tournament when his freakish size was on full display, barely leaving the ground to throw down a dunk against No. 16 Prairie View A&M in the first round.
During moments of blowout games, the crowd at the O’Connell Center would famously chant for Golden to put him in the game, although he admitted that his stubborn nature made it hard to give in to those chants.
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“I can be stubborn, you know, I don’t listen to direction very well at times. So when they’re yelling at me to do it, it kind of, ‘Alright, maybe I’ll wait a little longer’. There’s a time, you know, with Ollie for right now, like, when I put him in the game, I’m not going to take him back out,” Golden said.
Upon entering the transfer portal, 247 Sports’ composite rankings ranked him as the 41st-best center and 339th overall prospect in the portal.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/florida as Former Florida Gators 7-Foot-9 Big Man Finds New Home .
