The Breakers have snared their big man for the next Australian NBL season, completing the signing of former Utah State standout Gary Wilkinson.

Wilkinson, a 2.05m 27-year-old, was today unveiled as the first of two Breakers imports for the next season with high hopes he can be the ideal big man for their up-tempo offence.

His signing does come with one downside - it means the club has officially given up on landing Kiwi NBA pioneer Sean Marks who has expressed some interest in rounding out his career in his old home town.

But with Marks still chasing one more year in the NBA, and with he and his wife due to have their third baby in November, the timing just wasn't right for Marks to commit to the Breakers at this stage.

"We're still hopeful of getting him here at some stage," said Breakers GM Richard Clarke. "But we had to admit it wasn't quite going to happen this year - or not initially anyway - and then we had to make the call on a big man."

In Wilkinson the Breakers are hopeful they have a Marks type player. That is to say he's capable of playing either centre or power forward, has a good work ethic, a well-rounded game and can fill the need for a post presence as well as step out and shoot the J.

He's an interesting story, too, having been a late bloomer in many ways after discovering the Mormon faith.

He was a high school dropout who was cut from the hoops team for attitude problems, strayed badly off track, lost a friend to suicide, found God, and the Mormon church, spent two years in Canada on a mission, and finally launched a college basketball career in his early-20s.

He has most recently played professional in Korea and Greece after finishing an outstanding two years at Utah State where with 17 points and seven boards a game he helped the Aggies make some noise on the national scene in his final year when he was WAC player of the year and tournament MVP.

Clarke said Wilkinson was probably not going to be a "dominant" big man in the ANBL but it was hoped he would be just the player the Breakers are after.

"Gary's a player who can do a lot of things well - he's big enough and he's strong enough to mark the bigger guys and should create some good mismatches for us."

He averaged 9.2 points and just over four rebounds a game in Korea and had 4.4ppg and 2.2rpg in a dozen matches in the strong Greek league.

These are not startling numbers. But with the Breakers looking for an inside presence, a solid all-round player and a good character to round out their roster, they feel they will be getting just the player they're after.

The big redhead is also a reformed bad boy, telling ESPN The Magazine he had turned to alcohol and drugs when he dropped out of high school.

"I wasn't really motivated," Wilkinson told the magazine. "I really didn't have any goals. I didn't have any ambition to play college basketball, didn't have any ambition to go to the university at all. I just sat around and partied with my friends."

But then after a close friend's suicide he found his faith and managed to turn his life around.

"I honestly can't tell you how I stuck with it," added Wilkinson. "Something just said, 'You got to do it.' I just tried to follow the rules and live a life opposite to what it was before. I saw great things come to my life."

That path now brings him to New Zealand where the reformed bad boy, who still keeps a picture of himself from his unruly days in his wallet to remind him of where he's come from, will look to add another chapter to his "comeback" story