UC Irvine adds world's tallest basketball player in 7-9 Florida transfer Olivier Rioux

The tallest player in college basketball has a new home. Former Florida 7-foot-9 center Olivier Rioux committed to UC Irvine on Thursday after spending the last two seasons with Florida, he announced on social media.

Rioux, who was a preferred walk-on with Florida, appeared in 11 games during the 2025-26 season. He made history earlier this season by becoming the tallest player in college basketball history -- at any level -- to score a basket. He threw down a two-handed flush in Florida's blowout win over Saint Francis early in the season.

As a deep bench reserve for the Gators, Rioux logged just 16 total minutes in those 11 games. Florida's elite frontcourt depth, headlined by Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu, made the path to real playing time tough. Rioux redshirted during Florida's national title run last season and didn't appear in a game. 

Condon and Haugh already announced their return to Florida for next season, while Chinyelu is going through the NBA Draft process before deciding on a return to school. The Gators could very well open this season as the preseason No. 1 team, and with those players returning, the path to real playing time for Rioux was slim.

In 2021, Guinness World Records declared Rioux the tallest teenager in the world at 7-foot-5. When he checked in against North Florida earlier this season, he became the tallest college basketball player ever to appear in a game. To give context on how tall Rioux actually is, he didn't even need a ladder to cut down the nets when Florida beat Texas Tech in the Elite Eight last season.

Rioux will join a UC Irvine squad that finished the 2025-26 campaign 23-12 overall, which included a 75-72 loss to UNLV in the first round of the NIT. The Anteaters have reached the NCAA Tournament twice (2015 and 2019) since the turn of the century.