Winthrop basketball’s Xavier Cooks to represent Australia in World University Games

Winthrop’s Xavier Cooks has been selected to play for the Basketball Australia men’s team in the World University Games that will be held from July 4 to 13 in South Korea.

Cooks, a 6-foot-8 Australian native from Wollongong, New South Wales, is coming off a standout freshman year for Winthrop. He averaged 7.8 points, a team-high 6.1 rebounds and connected on 53.6 percent of his field goal attempts on the way to earning Big South Conference All-Freshman honors. Cooks played in all 32 games and started 27 times, including the final 24 of the year. Cooks capped his freshman year with a 14-point, 12-rebound performance against Coastal Carolina in the Big South championship game.

“We are very excited for Xavier,” said Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey. “In my opinion, the opportunity to represent your country is the ultimate honor in sports and he will get to do that. This is something that he wanted very badly. I think I speak for all Eagle fans when I say that we very are proud of him.”

Cooks and his Basketball Australia teammates will begin play in the World University Games on Saturday night against Chinese Taipei and will face France on Sunday night before a day off. The Aussies then play Japan, Finland and Lithuania. The University of Kansas Jayhawks are representing the USA National Team at the World University Games.

Many of the players selected for the team are likely to be in contention to represent Australia in the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In addition to Cooks, the Basketball Australia roster includes six other players who have been developing their games at American colleges, four NBL (Australia’s professional league) players and two Sudanese players whose fathers came to the country as American imports.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 2:15 PM with the headline "Winthrop basketball’s Xavier Cooks to represent Australia in World University Games."