7'9 Olivier Rioux Commits to UC Irvine After Florida Transfer, What's Next for Star Center?

Former Florida center Olivier Rioux announced Thursday he's transferring to UC Irvine.

The 7'9" redshirt freshman appeared in 11 games for the Gators this year. He scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds in 16 total minutes.

Rioux's height made him an obvious source of fascination when he was at IMG Academy. He's the tallest player in college basketball history.

However, the 20-year-old is still trying to build his reputation beyond that.

Coming out of high school, Rioux was a consensus 3-star recruit. Then, he couldn't break through and become a regular rotation player for Florida, which was admittedly tough with a program that had championship aspirations.

UC Irvine will be a lower stakes setting while allowing for Rioux to ply his trade with a proven winner. The Anteaters have a .634 winning percentage and eight regular-season Big West titles in Russell Turner's 16 years as head coach.

Turner also has to replace 6'10" forward Kyle Evans, who transferred to NC State. Evans was the Big West Defensive Player of the Year while averaging 12.1 points, 8.7 rebounds and a Division I-high 3.3 blocks.

Perhaps Rioux can thrive under Turner's tutelage like Evans did.