Former Coug Aaron Baynes Named to Australian Olympic Team - Spokane, North Idaho News & Weather KHQ.com

Former Washington State center Aaron Baynes is going to London with Team Australia!

The former Cougar is one of 12 members of the Australian Boomers 2012 Olympic team. The announcement was made Friday.

The team includes a handful well-known players among basketball fans around the Inland Northwest and the West Coast and Pac-12 conferences. Other players going to London include Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova – both of whom played at Saint Mary's. Joe Ingles, Adam Gibson, Peter Crawford, Brad Newley, David Barlow, David Andersen, Matt Neilsen, Mark Worthington and Aleks Maric are also on the team.

The Australian team will be coached by Brett Brown, an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs.

Baynes was a member of the Cougar basketball team from 2006-09 and a two-year starter. He finished second on the team in scoring in 2008-09 (12.7 points per game) and tied for third in 2007-08 (10.4 ppg). He became the 30th player in WSU history to exceed 1,000 points for his career, finishing with 1,064. A native of Cairns, Australia, the 6-foot-11 center also became the 11th Cougar to surpass 600 rebounds as he finished with 653. He led the Cougars with 43 blocked shots as a senior to move into a seventh-place tie with Kyle Weaver with 93 career blocks. Baynes finished his career with the eighth best field goal percentage all time (.546) and helped lead the Cougars to two NCAA Tournaments (2007 and 2008) and an NIT appearance (2009).

Having already played and defeated London opponent China in the recent YouYi series in Perth, the Boomers will begin their final series on home soil against a strong Greek side this weekend. The Australians will then head to Spain where they will take on the world's number two Spanish side that boasts an all-NBA starting lineup.

The Boomers are looking for their first Olympic medal at the games in London as competition will take place at the Basketball Arena with their campaign opening game against Brazil on day two of Olympic competition (July 29).