It was a historic moment for Florida basketball.

Yet it wasn’t the unveiling of the Gators’ national championship banner in their home opener that owned the spotlight, but rather that was overshadowed by a different historic moment.

In the final minutes of Florida’s 104-64 win over North Florida, the Gator student section began chanting for 7-foot-9 redshirt freshman Olivier Rioux to enter the game.

After a few moments, Florida head 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 minutes and nine se

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