BYU Basketball: Gavin Baxter talks his crazy wingspan, love of defense, Yoeli Childs’ plans, and more

New BYU forward Gavin Baxter hopped on BYU Sports Nation today just nine days removed from his release as an LDS missionary.

Baxter is considered one of the best athletes to come to BYU in sometime, and he touched on that with his crazy wingspan. Baxter grew to 6’9” on his mission, and said he boasts a wingspan of 7’2”. Yeah, that is looooong. To put that in perspective, 6’8” Lebron James has a 7’ wingspan, and 6’11” Giannis Antetokounmpo, aka the “Greek Freak”, has a 7’3” wingspan.

With that long wingspan, Baxter will come and have the opportunity to be an elite defender. When asked the what he brings, Baxter first mentioned defense and said that he “likes to play defense.” That will surely be music to the ears of BYU fans.

In terms of next year’s roster, Baxter mentioned that his AAU teammate and 4-star shooting guard Connor Harding gets home from his mission in June. When talking about Yoeli Childs, Baxter said that he is “working on getting him back.” Later in the interview, he was a little more decisive and said that “Yoeli is gonna be there (BYU)” next season.

You can watch the entire 9-minute interview here.