The Iowa basketball team was supposed to be taking a trip overseas this summer.

College basketball teams are allowed to take those foreign tours every four years, but Covid-19 and travel restrictions put those plans on hold until next summer.

But, that doesn’t mean that the Hawkeyes will be stuck in Iowa City all summer. Fran McCaffery has traditionally had at least one player join the East Coast All Stars team that travels to Europe each year.

The group is run by Guy Rancourt and he and McCaffery have had a long time friendship, so players from as far back as the beginning of his tenure at Iowa have played on his teams during the summer. Usually they travel to Newark, NJ, practice for a couple of days, and then takeoff for their destination in Europe.

This year, the group will have a little different look and feel and it will have a couple of Hall of Fame coaches leading three teams to Switzerland (hopefully) and it will including three Iowa players on the roster. There is chance that if the Swiss decide not to fully open up that the teams could end up playing in England instead.

“We are going to have three guys go, Keegan (Murray), Kris (Murray), and Patrick (McCaffery) are going to go. The teams will be coached by Larry Brown, Jim Boeheim, and Fran Martin and there will be three different teams,” McCaffery said on Thursday afternoon.

McCaffery also said he may end up being an assistant coach for Martin on the trip.

While the Iowa head coach isn’t certain what teams his players will be on, he knows that all three will not be on the same team.

“It could be all three are on different teams or two could be on one team together,” he said.

This will certainly be a huge growth opportunity for all three players, but, that is especially true for Kris Murray.

Keegan Murray and Patrick McCaffery saw extensive playing time last season. Keegan Murray was a revelation last year, averaging 7.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and earning All Freshman team honors in the Big Ten. Patrick McCaffery also had an outstanding season. He averaged 5.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game while playing nearly 15 minutes per game.

While Keegan Murray and McCaffery saw playing time in all 31 games this past year, Kris Murray saw limited action in 13 games and averaged 3.2 minutes per contest. But, that doesn’t mean the Iowa head coach doesn’t see plenty of potential in the other Murray twin.

"He's going to be a really integral part of what do going forward," McCaffery said. “If we needed him to play more minutes, I have no doubt that he could've. The one good thing that happened last year is during practice, he played a lot at the five spot as an undersized five. He could play there. He could play the three, four or five, he learned all three positions."

McCaffery feels that the work put in this summer and the chance to get this experience overseas could really prove to be a springboard for Kris Murray heading into next season.

"He's a good three-point shooter, which is something our team needs,” McCaffery said. “Physically, he's in a really good place in terms of his strength and conditioning. His confidence is in a really good place. I'm excited for him to travel with this team overseas. We'll have him for two months here and he'll go overseas, and put him in position to not only be a factor for our team, but in our league."