7'9" Florida Center Olivier Rioux to Redshirt CBB Season; World's Tallest Teenager

College basketball fans will have to wait one more season to see the world's tallest teenager in action.

Olivier Rioux, a 7-foot-9 freshman for Florida, is planning to redshirt this season, Gators head coach Todd Golden said Thursday, via the Associated Press. Rioux would use one of his four collegiate seasons had he played in just one game this year.

While Golden said the plan right now is to redshirt Rioux, he hinted that burning his redshirt is possible.

"I should have made that clear (before)," Golden said. "Honestly, it's put him in a tough situation. He's sitting over there at the end of games and everybody's yelling at him and trying to get him out there. They just hadn't understood that that was our potential plan for him.

"So that's where we're at at this moment. I'm not saying that's 100 percent going to be the plan. We'll continue to talk to him and see if he changes what he wants to do. But as of right now, that's the plan that we're going to have with him as we move forward."

Rioux, originally from Quebec, Canada, was considered to be a 3-star prospect coming out of high school, per 247Sports Composite. He played high school basketball at IMG Academy before committing to Florida.

The 18-year-old earned a Guinness World Record in 2021 for being the tallest teenager in the world. Once he makes his debut for the Gators, he will be college basketball's tallest player ever. The previous tallest players were Kenny George, who played at UNC Asheville from 2006 to 2008, and Mike Lanier, who played at Hardin-Simmons and UCLA from 1988 to 1993. Both stood at 7-foot-7.

As they await Rioux's debut, the Gators will look to put together a good season following last season's first-round NCAA Tournament exit. Florida is 3-0 through its first few games and has a meeting with Florida State on Friday.