JP Macura commits to Xavier

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Terrible news. The 2014 recruiting class is in bad shape. Nothing against Xavier, but we should not be losing in-state recruits to Xavier. The problem with courting so many of these top 150 guys openly, is that it starts to look bad when you have nothing but swings and misses. Whoever we do end up with will know they were the 5th or 6th choice for the scholarship. Score one for Baldy McBaldwimp, I guess.
 

Kids don't have same loyality to their state school that fans do. They seem to lead us on and then leave.. We will have better luck recruiting under the radar but talented kids in the east at least until Pitino gets the program going in the directions he wants. Maybe JP felt he wasn't athletic enough to play in this pressure defense system and would be a role shooter? The whole thing makes Pitino look bad at least in the way the press will treat it. Minnesota even loses a lower level in state kid. It's not the end of the world and would be esaier to take if we had a recruit or two commited.
 

Myke said:
Couple reasons why Macura left.

1. Pitino's been here 4 months. Other coaching staff's have been building relationships with JP for quite a while, there's no way JP would have the trust in Pitino and his staff that he has with the others.
2. He's never seen a Richard Pitino team play. He has no idea if Pitino can cut it in the B1G.
3. I'm 100% certain he never felt wanted like the other 3 from the state. The Minnesota coaches and the fans paid way more attention to the "Big 3" while i'm sure at Xavier they made him feel wanted much more than we ever did.
4. Why would a kid want to put his faith in a coach that was nowhere near the school's first choice? That just makes no sense.

If you're upset about us losing JP...I don't look forward to seeing the reaction to us losing Tyus, Reid and Vaughn. Pitino needs to prove himself before he can get top recruits. Common sense guys.
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Makes sense to me.

Now its time for the Big 3 to fess up so Pitino can really focus on recruiting.
 




Congratulations to young Mr. Macura. I hope he has a very successful career at Xavier. :)
 

Typical overreaction from some on this board.
The kid knew what he wanted- big school, big class sizes, lack of playing time potentially all an issue.

I think it may say far more about who Macura is and what he wants then it does about Minnesota. We'll be fine. Those that have spent time at or attended the U know that it's a big, unique campus that's in an urban environment that takes the right type of kid to be comfortable.

On a positive note, it does help the coaching staff increase recruiting elsewhere.
 





GopherLady said:
Here are some of Chris Monter's tweets:

@bphof21 - I always felt Macura wanted to go to a smaller school where he could play right away. The smaller class size was also appealing
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I have to believe this was a big factor, Xavier is a smaller version of St Thomas that plays in a major basketball conference, he will get an educational experience that is very similiar to St Thomas than the U.
 

This is when I'd like to see Alex Illikainen or Jarvis Johnson make a bold move and commit early to get the ball rolling, send a message that staying in-state is a good move and this could help with other 2014 recruits to see that a couple of highly ranked 2015 kids are already on board. I realize this probably won't happen and I don't blame the 2015 kids for wanting to be courted and experience the recruiting process for another year, not to mention to watch Pitino at Minnesota for a season, but it would be great timing if one of them already made their decision.

Go Gophers!!
 


BleedGopher said:
This is when I'd like to see Alex Illikainen or Jarvis Johnson make a bold move and commit early to get the ball rolling, send a message that staying in-state is a good move and this could help with other 2014 recruits to see that a couple of highly ranked 2015 kids are already on board. I realize this probably won't happen and I don't blame the 2015 kids for wanting to be courted and experience the recruiting process for another year, not to mention to watch Pitino at Minnesota for a season, but it would be great timing if one of them already made their decision.

Go Gophers!!
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Pitino doesn't have much of a track record, are any of these kids going to commit until he has a season under his belt, a successfull season will really jump start the program, above 500 B1G and NCAA bid will go a long way in landing some of the 2015 kids, tough road I know.
 



Very suprised and disappointed by Macura going to Xavier. I felt very confident he would be the first 2014 Gopher commit but I guess things just didn't work out that way. Hopefully Tum Tum will be the first to choose the Gophers and guys like Travis, White, and Vaughn follow.
 

Miles Tarver said:
Big 10 (as good as any conference around). and stay home to be a hometown favorite?

again, WHY?!
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And how do we treat hometown kids? You'd have to ask Hoffarber, Weber, and now Nelson. Seems the belittlement of them by fans was and is excessive while we restrain criticism of out-of-state kids.
 

Goldy Gopher said:
Very suprised and disappointed by Macura going to Xavier. I felt very confident he would be the first 2014 Gopher commit but I guess things just didn't work out that way. Hopefully Tum Tum will be the first to choose the Gophers and guys like Travis, White, and Vaughn follow.
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Same here, I thought we'd get JP. Just goes to show it's impossible to know what's going on inside a 17-18 year old kid's head. Best of luck to JP.

Getting Tum Tum now becomes even more important than it already was.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
And how do we treat hometown kids? You'd have to ask Hoffarber, Weber, and now Nelson. Seems the belittlement of them by fans was and is excessive while we restrain criticism of out-of-state kids.
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Huh? Weber I could see, but I don't remember Hoffarber being belittled by the fans and I think most if not all Gopher football fans are pretty happy with Nelson so far.
 

jaymil said:
Huh? Weber I could see, but I don't remember Hoffarber being belittled by the fans and I think most if not all Gopher football fans are pretty happy with Nelson so far.
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Yeah same here. The Hoff is a lot of people's favorite Gopher in a long time. He was LOVED here. IMO.

Nelson is still TBD, he's a sophomore only. But so far the response seems to be good.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
And how do we treat hometown kids? You'd have to ask Hoffarber, Weber, and now Nelson. Seems the belittlement of them by fans was and is excessive while we restrain criticism of out-of-state kids.
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Hoffarber was a fan favorite. What are you talking about? I've also heard mostly praise for Nelson.
 

I've never heard of anyone having anything but the utmost respect for Hoffarber. He was the very definition of a fan favorite. Don't mistake people being upset at Tubby for not recruiting a PG and forcing Hoffarber to play PG as some sort of hatred toward Hoffarber.
 

Rodney was also a fan favorite for the majority of the fan base.
 


GopherLady said:
Here's Amelia's blog...

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/223072421.html
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A comment from "thescout" below this article:
"He is a higher rated recruit than every player on the team other than Andre Hollins, as well as all of Pitinos Recruits. Would have no problem with getting playing time"

Jim Cramer in the Macura shunning the U thread:

Jim Cramer said:
JP is twice the Player King is. King was a ESPN and Rivals ZERO Star recruit. Who put up modest numbers at Drake. He is a higher rated recruit then all cuurent players other than Andre. As far as him not being a Pitino Priority .... Pitino would be nuts if that was true. If Pitino had a verbal from Vaughn or Whitehead then JP could be secondary.
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It has been confirmed that Jim Cramer is indeed THESCOUT!
 

tomkbball said:
1. False. Xavier entered the mix for JP after the Gophers did.
2. False. He has watched tape on Pitino's style of play.
3. False. The Gophers recruited him aggressively and really wanted him. He knew that. He made 4 visits to campus at the behest of the coaching staff. The kid could care less about the attention the other 3 were getting.
4. The comment makes no sense.
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1. The assistant coach who JP really clicked with moved to Xavier from Mizzou who had been on JP since the beginning.
2. Pitino has one season of low major ball under his belt, has won zero B1G games & no one knows
if his style will actually work in the B1G.
3 & 4. JP has been/will always be the best player not in the "Big 3". I'm sure Pitino recruited him hard, but he reads the newspaper/posting forums I'm sure & realizes he's the 4th most important recruit (in the state) for the U.
 

jaymil said:
A comment from "thescout" below this article:
"He is a higher rated recruit than every player on the team other than Andre Hollins, as well as all of Pitinos Recruits. Would have no problem with getting playing time"

Jim Cramer in the Macura shunning the U thread:



It has been confirmed that Jim Cramer is indeed THESCOUT!
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Yup. I've mentioned this a few times, but it always gets deleted for some reason. I hope he gets banned again.
 

I'm extremely bitter. I feel like JP led us along. All that crap about wanting to be the first to commit to the program was pure bs. I hope he gets booed at every game this year.
 

Myke said:
Couple reasons why Macura left.

1. Pitino's been here 4 months. Other coaching staff's have been building relationships with JP for quite a while, there's no way JP would have the trust in Pitino and his staff that he has with the others.
2. He's never seen a Richard Pitino team play. He has no idea if Pitino can cut it in the B1G.
3. I'm 100% certain he never felt wanted like the other 3 from the state. The Minnesota coaches and the fans paid way more attention to the "Big 3" while i'm sure at Xavier they made him feel wanted much more than we ever did.
4. Why would a kid want to put his faith in a coach that was nowhere near the school's first choice? That just makes no sense.

If you're upset about us losing JP...I don't look forward to seeing the reaction to us losing Tyus, Reid and Vaughn. Pitino needs to prove himself before he can get top recruits. Common sense guys.
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Well said, although this will be a very unpopular sentiment on this board.
 

burton34 said:
I'm extremely bitter. I feel like JP led us along. All that crap about wanting to be the first to commit to the program was pure bs. I hope he gets booed at every game this year.
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Okay, I've long been on record as saying that I don't understand the "good luck to all of the kids from Minnesota who turned down a Gopher scholarship, and I hope they all have very successful careers in college basketball" stuff, but this is a little too far in my opinion. I hope Macura fails as a college basketball player, but going to his high school games to boo him seems a bit much.
 

jmag21 said:
Okay, I've long been on record as saying that I don't understand the "good luck to all of the kids from Minnesota who turned down a Gopher scholarship, and I hope they all have very successful careers in college basketball" stuff, but this is a little too far in my opinion. I hope Macura fails as a college basketball player, but going to his high school games to boo him seems a bit much.
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I never said I was going to go to games to boo him. And even if I did, hoping that others boo him is not even close to the level of wishing that he fails. Applauding or cheering a player are natural parts of the game. Wishing that someone fails is not. You sir, are going too far.
 

burton34 said:
I never said I was going to go to games to boo him. And even if I did, hoping that others boo him is not even close to the level of wishing that he fails. Applauding or cheering a player are natural parts of the game. Wishing that someone fails is not. You sir, are going too far.
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I'm sure JP won't take it personally, because I hope every non-Gopher D-1 player and team fails. It's part of being a fan of a team. In order for the Gophers to succeed in the Big Ten, other teams must fail, both on the nights they're playing the Gophers, and otherwise. In order for that to happen, the players on those teams must fail. And I want the Gophers to win the National Championship every year. I think most fans ultimately hope that for their team, even if it's unrealistic. I hope their hopes are dashed, and mine and those of other Gopher fans are realized. JP had a chance to have me as a fan, by playing for the team I support. He chose to have the Xavier fans as his fans. I'm not saying he's a bad person for choosing otherwise, nor that I hope he's a failure in life. But I hope he doesn't succeed in becoming a good basketball player, and that his Xavier teammates also fail to succeed, as do every D-1 basketball player who doesn't play for us. As to your post, I may have misunderstood it, but I think booing a high school kid at home games in his own gym in front of his parents may be a bit much. It wasn't a judgment on you, though, or anything. We're all on the same side here.
 

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