{"id":87600,"date":"2025-12-18T04:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/87600\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T04:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T04:02:07","slug":"worlds-tallest-teen-floridas-olivier-rioux-delivers-emphatic-dunk-for-first-college-field-goal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/87600\/","title":{"rendered":"World’s tallest teen, Florida’s Olivier Rioux, delivers emphatic dunk for first college field goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Fla<\/a>. (AP) \u2014 Olivier Rioux lumbered through the lane, caught a bounce pass from teammate CJ Ingram and dunked, sending Florida\u2019s bench and the home crowd into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

Rioux barely left his feet to make it happen.<\/p>\n

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The 7-foot-9 center and the world\u2019s tallest teenager recorded his first collegiate field goal in the 23rd-ranked Gators\u2019 102-61 victory against Saint Francis<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty special, man,\u201d Gators coach Todd Golden said. \u201cThe transition, his vertical. Woo. He was up there, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the most memorable play in a forgettable game against an overmatched opponent.<\/p>\n

Florida fans watched their team dominate every aspect of its first home game in nearly a month and then started chanting, \u201cWe want Ollie,\u201d with a little more than six minutes to play. Golden put the big fella in at the 2-minute mark, drawing the loudest ovation of the night.<\/p>\n

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Rioux delivered, first with a hard foul on the defensive end and then an impressive cut to the basket on the other. Florida players celebrated wildly, jumping around and pushing each other in revelry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just going crazy,\u201d said Florida guard Xaivian Lee, who led the team with 18 points.<\/p>\n

Quipped teammate Alex Condon, who added 14 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots: \u201cGood pass from CJ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rioux became the tallest person to ever play college basketball when he made his debut in a 104-64 victory over North Florida<\/a> in early November. Rioux, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman from Canada, drew so much attention from the Ospreys that he didn\u2019t even touch the ball in that one.<\/p>\n

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He scored three games later<\/a>, making a free throw after getting fouled. He also recorded his first rebound.<\/p>\n

But this was different. It was a clear display of just how difficult Rioux can be to defend, even though Golden says his stamina only allows him to play a couple minutes at a time.<\/p>\n

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. He already owned a spot in the Guinness record book when he signed with Florida in 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n

Golden gave Rioux the option of playing sparingly last season or taking a redshirt season and working on his game<\/a>. Rioux chose the latter. Nonetheless, he was a walking viral video, from riding his bike on campus, to ducking under every doorway, to cutting down nets while standing flat-footed during Florida\u2019s NCAA Tournament run.<\/p>\n

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Golden has 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 <\/a> and welcomed the challenge of playing against Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten in practice and behind them in games.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s always the bigger \u2014 literally \u2014 attraction.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Olivier Rioux lumbered through the lane, caught a bounce pass from teammate CJ Ingram…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3107,8294,1618,28,30,29,3111,20053,510,25387,25404,47696,3115,3116,29868],"class_list":["post-87600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alex-condon","tag-college-basketball","tag-fla","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gators","tag-micah-handlogten","tag-north-florida","tag-olivier-rioux","tag-rueben-chinyelu","tag-tacko-fall","tag-thomas-haugh","tag-todd-golden","tag-xaivian-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}