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7'9'' Florida Gators Center Makes NCAA History With Emphatic Dunk

Olivier Rioux, the tallest player in basketball history, made some awesome history in Florida's win Wednesday night.

Kyle Koster

Florida's Olivier Rioux found himself a high-percentage shot.
Florida's Olivier Rioux found himself a high-percentage shot. / ESPN
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Olivier Rioux, the Florida Gators' 7'9" center, has drawn a lot of attention for his height during his time in Gainesville. The freshman center has had limited playing time though, entering Wednesday night's contest against Saint Francis with five minutes logged. But with Florida throttling the Red Flash by 40 points in the closing minutes Todd Golden sent Rioux out there again. And this time the big man provided some high-quality on-court entertainment by collecting his first career points via a dunk.

The home crowd was super excited to see the payoff of their "We want Ollie" chants that persisted for several minutes before their favorite end-of-bench player trekked to the scorer's table.

Rioux's long-awaited points made him the tallest player to ever score a field goal in a college basketball game. He previously made a free throw against Merrimack back on Nov. 21, which means he is now averaging a very clean 1.0 points per contest.

In his second season after redshirting, the Canadian product is two inches taller than former NBA players Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol and three inches taller than Shawn Bradley, Yao Ming and Tacko Fall.

Although it may not be entirely necessary for Rioux to even jump in order to dunk, he did get some actual lift on his memorable dunk.

"Pretty special, man," Gators coach Todd Golden said after the game. "The transition, his vertical. Woo. He was up there, man."

College basketball teams all across the nation have their own beloved figures who only get in the game when the outcome is well in hand. Rioux is just the tallest. And perhaps most fun to watch.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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