How a Little-Used 7' 9" Florida Center Became March Madness’s Most Electric Moment

TAMPA — The only drama in No. 1 seed Florida’s dominant 114–55 opening-round win over 16-seed Prairie View A&M was when the Gators would finally give 7' 9" Olivier Rioux a chance to make his NCAA men’s tournament debut.

Rioux, who was redshirting last season during Florida’s run to the national championship, is the tallest player in college basketball history. He wears size 20 shoes and quite literally towers over his teammates, even the Gators’ four players who are 6' 10" or taller. And while he’s still very much a developmental project without much of a place in Florida’s rotation, he often checks into games in the final minutes … much to the delight of fans everywhere.

The chants started to rain down from the upper deck with nearly 10 minutes to go in the game, result well in hand already with Florida more than doubling up the Panthers at the time.

“We want Oli! We want Oli!”

Those first chants came from only a smattering of fans, and Rioux maintained a straight face. But as the night went on, the Gators’ giant couldn’t help but grin as the cheers began to roar by the game’s final media timeout. Redshirting teammate AJ Brown did little to quell them, sometimes egging the cheers on and nudging Rioux to get excited. Those who lingered until nearly midnight were largely just there to see Rioux’s brief salvo. Florida head coach Todd Golden finally sent Rioux to the scorer’s table with around 2:30 left in the game before he finally checked in after a Golden timeout with 1:54 to go. His teammates were pumped and the crowd, predictably, went absolutely bananas.

“It has been amazing,” Rioux says of becoming a fan favorite. “It’s one of a kind.”

Once in the game, it didn’t take long for the Canadian big man to make his presence felt. His first possession was a bit rocky, missing a point-blank shot at the rim before getting blocked on a putback attempt. But that was only a temporary delay of the moment the entire building had lingered for. Next trip down the floor, Rioux snatched an offensive rebound nearly from the clouds and dunked it home, barely even needing to jump to slam it down. The building erupted, but no one was more excited than his Florida teammates, who celebrated on the bench like they had just won a second national championship. His 7-foot teammate Micah Handlogten was one of two Gators to go down to the floor in celebration, laying down on his chest and bouncing up and down gleefully for a few seconds.

OLIVIER RIOUX HAMMER 🔨 pic.twitter.com/nXm1DqbcX8
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 21, 2026

That excitement and pure joy from his teammates was maybe the most heartwarming moment of the NCAA tournament to date, a reminder of the purity of this event in its purest form: a player whose role on the team is largely just as a practice body getting the March spotlight for just a few moments. And Rioux certainly took notice of his teammates’ over-the-moon reaction to him slamming it down.

Why the huge reaction? Rueben Chinyelu, who battles with Rioux daily in practice, said seeing Rioux and the rest of the bench getting a chance to actually check into the game is special because of the work they put in to help the team behind the scenes.

“Just me seeing him being able to step up there, go in there, dunk the ball, make points, it’s really—you could see everybody enjoyed it. Anytime we’re playing and we can set up an opportunity to get our guys in, we really do that because they grind. You guys don’t see behind the scenes. They’re getting us ready, they’re playing with us, trying to make sure we have what we need to deliver. I think that’s the gift of the time, to repay them as a thank you for what [they’re] doing.”

As for Rioux’s reaction to his teammates’ support?

“It feels amazing,” Rioux says with a smile, almost lost for words. “It’s great.”

This will likely be the last we see of big Oli in the Big Dance this season unless the Gators can get some serious separation late in one of their other, far more challenging tests this March. But everyone’s favorite 7' 9" big man is hard at work improving his game to hopefully make a bigger impact down the road. The first step has been working to improve his foot speed so he can get up and down the floor easier, a necessity if he’s to play more consistent minutes.

But for now, he’s quite the entertaining fan favorite … and yet another reason to tune in for the Gators’ chase for back-to-back national titles.

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