Macura took an unofficial visit to Minnesota last week for the Gopher football game and an official visit to Xavier.
J.P. Macura, a 6-foot-5, 185-pound wing from Lakeville North, visited Minnesota for the Golden Gophers’ football season opener versus UNLV and has become a priority for the new coaching staff.
Macura was named second team College Basketball News’ All-Metro and first team Star Tribune All-Metro after averaging more than 25 points per game in his first season of varsity action. Macura helped lead the Panthers to the Class AAAA state tournament this past year.
GopherHole.com caught up with Macura Monday at the High Performance Academy for a Breakdown photo shoot to learn the very latest on his recruitment.
Gopher Hole: How was the visit to Minnesota for the season opening football game?
J.P. Macura: It was fun. We got to see the football locker room and everything on the field. I hung out with Jarvis (Johnson) a lot, which was good. I think overall, I had a good time.
Gopher Hole: Are you still going to visit Xavier this weekend?
J.P. Macura: I just went. I just got back.
Gopher Hole: I thought that you were originally going to go on the 6th?
J.P. Macura: I switched it up to kind of speed the process up a little bit.
Gopher Hole: How was the visit?
J.P. Macura: It was awesome. I liked it a lot. What I like about the school is that I can come in and have a big impact on the team right away, if I work hard at it. Overall, I think that everything was great. It is a small campus, which isn’t that bad. The classroom size is very small, which I like. I thought it was good.
Gopher Hole: Are you still going to visit Iowa State?
J.P. Macura: I haven’t totally decided that yet.
Gopher Hole: I saw a story where your dad was quoted as saying you might commit fairly soon. Is that the case?
J.P. Macura: Possibly. Maybe in the next few weeks, but I still have to talk to my dad about possibly an official at Minnesota and Iowa State.
Gopher Hole: You told me recently that you had five schools that you were looking at. Minnesota, Creighton, Purdue, Xavier and Iowa State. Is it still those schools or have you narrowed it down even further from that?
J.P. Macura: It is the same schools right now.
Gopher Hole: Do you have any other visits planned besides maybe Minnesota and Iowa State?
J.P. Macura: That is pretty much it. It is kind of coming to an end.
Gopher Hole: How about Purdue? I know that you went down there for their Elite Camp. What was that experience like?
J.P. Macura: I was surprised. I didn’t know that Purdue had such a big campus and they have great facilities. It was fun.
Gopher Hole: What is going to be the main factor that is going to make you pick the school that you are going to select? What is the main thing?
J.P. Macura: Distance isn’t that big of a factor. Just feeling comfortable with the coaches and talking to them about having the opportunity to play right away. That is one of the main things. Creighton and Xavier said that and Minnesota, if I work hard. It is just going to be a hard decision because I think that I can come in and play right away at all those schools.
Gopher Hole: When do anticipate that you will make your choice?
J.P. Macura: Maybe two weeks, possibly. Two, three weeks. For sure, soon. Soon as possible. I don’t want to keep waiting.
Gopher Hole: Is it starting to be too much at times?
J.P. Macura: A little. It is nice because there are five main schools and those are the only people talking to me. Before that, it was just crazy. It is nice that I can actually go hang out with people and stuff instead of having calls every day.