A day after speaking with the local media about summer workouts, Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber hopped on the Big 12’s summer teleconference Wednesday to talk about the Wildcats’ trip to Europe in August as well as the progress of senior wing Wesley Iwundu this offseason.

With the team getting ready for the trip abroad in August, what has that preparation been like?

WEBER: “It’s a good thing. To me, it’s like having the opportunity like football has with spring football every year with whatever they get, 10 or 15 practices. So this gives you an opportunity to get your system in, it gets an opportunity to coach the new players, and also kind of figuring out what you have as an overall team. We spread them out over the summer.

“Our summers are very busy. I think as (the media) know, I’m not sure other people understand, between camp and alumni outings and then workouts and now you through in practices, and obviously we come back after The Fourth and have our recruiting period in July. So we are doing three practices in June. We’re doing four practices in July, and then three in August right before we go on the trip.

“It’s a great opportunity for our players, for our program, and it gives you some opportunity for chemistry building, getting your system in and also the trips. They are great trips. We’re going to Rome and Venice and Lake Como and Switzerland. Unbelievable places, but it is a tough trip, and it’s a commitment for the players.

“I think that building of that toughness is a positive thing also.”

You’ve done these trips throughout your coaching career, but what have you seen as the impact those trips have had a few months later in the regular season and in conference play?

WEBER: “When I took the job here at K-State, there was a trip already planned. So we were able to go Brazil that first summer in Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo. It was an unbelievable opportunity. I had been to Europe, been all over. I think 28 countries or something, but I had never been to South America, so that was a great thing for us and then for our players.

“If you look back, that was the year we tied for the Big 12 championship with Kansas. This is going to be my 11th or 12th (trip), and if you go back and look at it, many of the times we came back, we either won championships or had great seasons. So I think it’s a really positive benefit. Like I said, he extra practice, the team building, the chemistry, the getting your system in, and then the toughness factor that you develop, it’s a very, very positive tool.

“Then for the players, the overall lifetime memories. My first trip was over 30-some years ago at Purdue as an assistant, and if I talk to those guys, if I called them today, they would bring up stories from that trip. They remember those memories and experiences they had on that foreign trip. It gives you a lot of benefits, there’s no doubt about it.”

Wesley Iwundu is working on his jump shot to try to tweak it a little bit. If he can get consistency to that, what is that going to add to his game?

WEBER: “At the end of the season, he was in a boot the last three weeks of practice and only played in the games. So to keep him busy we convinced him to really just put a lot of time into shooting. I think you’ve got a young man that has continued to develop. He wasn’t highly recruited. He was 5-foot-10 as a sophomore and played point guard, and now you’re talking about somebody who is 6-foot-7 that does some point guard things. He was on the Big 12 All-Defensive team, third team all-conference, so he gives you a lot of versatility, but if he can add that shooting to the mix, I think it gives him a chance to not only have a great senior year for us, but also to play in the future at the next level.

“The big thing we’ve worked on is to make open three’s, and if he can add that pull-up jumper to his game with his size, with his ball-handling ability, it would make it very difficult to stop him.

“He’s worked very hard. A lot of time, a lot of effort. Not only when we have our workout times, but he’s been in the gym on his own as much as anybody since this spring and into this summer, putting in a lot of time in on his shot.”

He’s played obviously an awful lot going into his senior season. For your team this year, how key is he going to be for his experience and leadership?

WEBER: “I think the biggest thing I said all year was about Christmas time last year, the light went on, something clicked. He looked you in the eye, he was asking questions, he would text us late at night. Things meant something. And it happens in athletes at different times in their career where all of a sudden they realize, ‘Hey, this is going fast and I better get my butt in gear to make the most out of it.’

“I’m happy for him, his maturity as a player. That’s helped in our team. The new guys come and they see him in the gym and putting that time in. They realize that’s the only way you’re going to become a good player. Then you get a lot of our former guys coming back and working camp. Rodney McGruder, Jordan Henriquez, Thomas Gipson, Nino Williams, all of those guys, and they are in the gym. They are all just great examples for our guys.

“I think Wesley, and then D.J. (Johnson) and Carlbe Ervin, three seniors that are going to be very important for us. Because if you look at our team, we are going to have six freshmen, and three sophomores that played a lot of minutes, but still, the majority of your team is underclassmen, so those guys are going to be important.”