The Gators also unveiled a player tall enough to reach into the rafters.
OK, so that’s hyperbole, but Florida 7-9 center Olivier Rioux became the tallest player to play an NCAA basketball game, breaking the mark of Manut Bol, who was 7-7 and played at Division II Bridgeport.
In the final minutes of Florida’s 104-64 win over North Florida, the Gator student section began chanting for redshirt freshman giant to enter the game.
After a few moments, Florida coach Todd Golden simply turned to his player and gave in to the crowd.
“Todd just looked at me,” Rioux said. “And I just (pretends to take shirt off) with my t-shirt.’
“It felt great. The support from everybody was amazing. Even on the bench and even with the fans. Everybody supported me. I’m very grateful.”
Rioux’s moment came with 2:09 left in the game, which officially made him the tallest player in college history and left the official crowd of 10,065 erupting.
“It’s another day, I guess,” Rioux replied, what it meant for him to own that record.
Rioux’s tongue-in-cheek sentiment was also shared by Golden.
“Not something that I think that much about,” Golden said. “I like the banner dropping before better. But, you know, I’m excited. I’m happy for him that he got an opportunity to get out there tonight.”
Golden admits fans were yelling at him to play Rioux at halftime, but the coach was adamant Rioux earned his minutes with his efforts from practice.
“I mean, listen, 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,” Golden said. “He went into this year knowing that our ability to get the frontcourt to come back was going to limit his opportunities.
‘Obviously, the game was in our control, and I 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. It was pretty neat for him to finally see the floor.”
Rioux didn’t score, which was attributed to North Florida trying to keep the ball away from the Montreal, Canada native.
“I think that was their job,” Rioux said. “We’ll see what happens next time.”
Andrew Abadie covers the Florida Gators for the Gainesville Sun for USA TODAY Co. Reach him at aabadie@gannett.com or at @AndrewAbadie.