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Bruce Weber kicks off tenure as Kansas State coach with wide-ranging recruiting plan

BruceWeber

Bruce Weber is leaving no stone unturned (except, perhaps, the West Coast) in his first summer as head coach of the Kansas State Wildcats.

In a Big 12 conference call on Thursday, Weber outlined a plan.

“We would obviously like to hit Kansas City and Kansas, this part of the Midwest,” Weber said, reported by Kellis Robinett of the Wichita Star. “But you can branch out to Texas. Dallas, hopefully, will be big for us with daily flights there out of Manhattan. Coach Huggs (Bob Huggins) and Frank (Martin) had a lot of success there. A lot of Big 12 schools have worked prep schools in the East. We will continue doing that. My contacts and Chris Lowery’s are in the Illinois, Indiana region … We will hit that a little bit and then throw in the community colleges when you have a certain need. That’s our plan. We will see what happens.”

In his time at Illinois, Weber recruited heavily in the state of Illinois, including grabbing guard Brandon Paul and projected lottery pick Meyers Leonard. Now at Kansas State, those borders will be expanded.

Frank Martin, whose coaching position Weber is filling after Martin departed for South Carolina, worked different areas of the country while at Kansas State.

Among the widespread recruiting under Martin was Miami (Angel Rodriguez), New York (Jordan Henriquez, Shane Southwell), Washington, D.C. (now-Rutgers forward Wally Judge), and California (Robert Upshaw, who is headed to Fresno State, now that Martin has left).

Though Weber may not stretch far west, the East is not off limits, he says.

“[Assistant coach Chester Frazier] is from Baltimore. He’s got a lot of connections there. That’s where he’s starting to work. Chris will branch out a little bit into Florida and the Midwest. Hopefully I’m just following up with whatever they are doing.”

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_