You can love him or you can hate him, but there is certainly no ignoring him.
It’s not hard to spot J.P Macura on the court, even before the opening tip goes up. Macura, Xavier’s brash senior, is the one who is always on the receiving end of angry invectives from opposing crowds. The one who receives the lion’s share of the abuse wherever Xavier travels. And the one who expects it on a nightly basis.
Macura’s edgy attitude stems from a competitive spirit he developed growing up in Lakeville, Minn. Always being the younger brother who was never good enough in basketball or anything else only served to grow the ultra-competitive persona you see today.
“I would say I’m at the very top (of the scale) with competitiveness,” said Macura, who averages 13 points a game for the 19-3 Musketeers. “It started at a young age with my brother (David), to be honest. He’s 18 months older than me and any time you’re a younger kid and your brother is almost two years older than you and you play sports or do whatever with them, you’re not going to win a lot of things. They’re just always bigger, faster, stronger. So over the years that losing just frustrated me and got to me and gave me this competitive spirit. No matter what happens I just try and give more effort and try to be the tougher person. And I think that’s carried into college with me. Whether it’s being fearless, competitive, tough, never backing down, I think that’s helped the team and a lot of the guys are the same exact way as me, very tough players.”
Macura’s no-holds-barred, anything-goes style has served him - and the Musketeers - well as when the conflict starts, it’s usually the result of Macura aggressively going after a rebound, hurling himself on the floor for a loose ball or willing a clutch shot to find the bottom of the net. It’s sort of a mind game he plays with his opponent while simply playing his game.
“I think I get in their head a little bit but I don’t purposely go looking for something to start,” Macura said. “It usually starts by me being over-competitive and super aggressive on the court and I think things happen from that where it leads to some type of argument on the floor or something that wouldn’t normally happen if you’re not being competitive. I think that by being ultra-competitive and trying to be the tougher person, it gets to a lot of players on opposing teams. Nobody wants a person pushing you around and trying to be tougher than you. So I think when you play with a ton of energy, that alone gets in people’s heads.”
There have been many instances where Macura was the object of scorn from opposing crowds, but that disdain, that loathing he regularly receives, only fuels his game even more.
One of the latest examples came on Jan. 20 when Xavier was in Newark playing Seton Hall. The Pirates fans were relentlessly showering Macura with mocking chants of “J.P.” throughout the game. Macura had a pedestrian nine points in the first half as the Pirates built a 35-30 lead at the intermission. But later, with Seton Hall leading deep into the second half, Macura became even more of an inviting target for Pirates fans.
Perhaps they should have left well enough alone, though, as Macura responded to the warm greetings by scoring 18 of his season-high 27 points in the second half. And when he added a one-handed slam off a missed Xavier shot late in the game, the crowd grew silent and Macura had once again logged his own personal road victory.
“Yeah I absolutely feed off the crowd,” Macura said. “I try to get on the court as soon as possible when I’m on the road because I want to get adjusted to the hoops and stuff. And I know that the fans are going to be on me from the start. But I just enjoy it. I‘m not a person who wants all that attention, but it’s fun when people are saying negative things at you and you just want to go out and play your best basketball as a team. When you can win a game on the road in the BIG EAST, it’s tough. Winning on the road is just tough in general and I think when fans are yelling stuff at you, especially Seton Hall fans because we had never won there before, and we win, that’s great. When we were up seven with a little over a minute left and I saw fans leaving the arena, that was super satisfying. It was awesome.”
Macura says his on-court persona is the complete opposite of his off-the-court personality. But he understands if opponents and their fans don’t get that because they don’t get to see that side of him.
“It stinks, it’s really unfortunate that people who watch me play basketball only know that side of me because they only see me play basketball,” Macura said. “So it’s fair for a lot of people to not like me and hate me because of my game. I just wish they could see both sides because I’m a lot different off the court when I’m not competing in something. When I’m off the court I’m just super laid back, hang out with my friends and family and am just a good friend who wants the best for people. I just think people don’t get to see that side of me which is unfortunate.”
Something else that might be unfortunate, not for Macura but for the rest of the BIG EAST, is that he doesn’t believe the Musketeers have hit their stride just yet. This despite already having wrapped up 19 wins, holding a No. 8 standing in the latest AP poll and nipping at the heels of Villanova in the hunt for the BIG EAST championship.
“What’s scary is we haven’t even played our best basketball yet,” Macura said. “But I think we’re getting there and I think we’re playing together well and one of the most important things about this team is everybody puts in work. Everyone wants to win, everyone wants to get better. I think if we come together just a little bit more as a team we’re going to be a terrific team in March.”
Last season, despite a late-season, six-game losing streak, Xavier rebounded to make its deepest run ever in the NCAA Tournament, reaching the Elite Eight before losing to eventual championship runner-up Gonzaga. It was a run that left Macura and the Musketeers hungry for more.
“It was an incredible feeling to get to the Elite Eight but it was a terrible feeling when you lose,” Macura said. “I think that stuck with a bunch of us and I think that we still think about that. Now I think the guys want to keep on winning and go farther and there’s not one person on this team that doesn’t want to go farther. So I just think we’re going to stick together and try to play our best basketball and win as many games as possible.”
With nine games remaining in the regular season, and sitting just one game behind Villanova in the regular-season standings, Macura thinks there just could be a changing of the guard in the BIG EAST this season.
“Most definitely. I think we’ve done a good job of setting us up so far that we can win the BIG EAST,” Macura said. “If we just continue to get better every day and stick to the process of being the best players we can be, I think it’s totally possible for us to win the BIG EAST. Win the BIG EAST and make the Final Four. That would be incredible.”