Freshman Transfer Finds Home with Crimson

Nearly eighteen months ago, on the campus of Princeton University, the women’s basketball team’s prized recruit was having second thoughts.

“A little bit into my first semester, I realized I was unhappy,” recalls Emma Markley, Harvard freshman and former Princeton student. “Maybe it was the first time going to college, being away from home, but it’s something that a lot of people go through. I can’t tell you why it was, but I knew that I wanted to come home.”

Something wasn’t right. Markley first left the basketball team, then withdrew from Princeton altogether. She then spent a long year off—away from the gym and the classroom—thinking about the role that basketball played in her life.

Markley’s sudden doubts about her commitment to basketball came as a surprise to her and those around her. A highly-touted recruit out from Yorktown Heights, N.Y., the 6’3” forward possessed a number of collegiate options from which to choose. Continuing her basketball career as a college student seemed a given, but for some reason, it suddenly wasn’t.

As Markley thought aloud about these questions on her year off, one coach was prepared to listen. And, as it turned out, that same coach prepared to offer Markley another chance at playing college basketball.

Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith had taken an initial interest in Markley, but Princeton had beaten her to the punch and gotten the forward’s attention very early on in the recruiting process. Nearly two years later, Delaney-Smith expressed interest once again—this time, in different terms.

“A lot of people didn’t understand, but when I talked to Kathy, she was the only one I felt comfortable talking to about this,” Markley says. “She understood more as a person, on top of being a basketball player. It was really exciting to hear someone say that they understood what I was going through, because no one really did.”

“I wanted to see her face-to-face and talk about her commitment, her love of the game, her readiness for college,” Delaney-Smith adds. “She had to figure out where she was going and what she wanted. I loved her honesty and I’m very glad she ended up here.”

Fast-forward to this week, as Markley and the Harvard women’s basketball team prepare for their second game of the season against Princeton, and a lot has changed.

Markley has transferred from Princeton to Harvard and seems to be in a Crimson uniform for the long haul. She’s happy, and—to the benefit of the program—thriving on the court as well as off.

In her first year at the college level, Markley has become an offensive sparkplug for an already fast-paced team; a career-high 13 points in a Harvard win at Dartmouth last month established her as a player to watch on the Ivy scene.

More recently, a key league matchup against Yale earlier this month saw the freshman make her first seven shots from the field en route to a game-high 14 points on the night.

“She is an impact player for us—when she comes on the floor, I feel like we have another spark and she’ll lift us to a higher place,” said junior guard Niki Finelli, who hosted Markley on the freshman’s first recruiting trip to Cambridge. “She will continue to impact this team and the league for years to come.”

Markley’s return to basketball hasn’t been all smiles and season-highs—like any freshman, she’s had to adjust to the new level of play expected in Division I basketball. As a high school star who towered above the competition both literally and figuratively, Markley has had to learn how to use her body to her advantage and to play defense without the easy block as a backup plan.

On top of these normal adjustments, Markley suffered a concussion in October that kept her off the court for more than five weeks. During that time, she watched from the sidelines as her teammates learned plays and found their places in the new system. Her year away from basketball was already forcing her to work doubly hard to get into basketball shape.

But as she returns to Princeton this weekend, Markley isn’t looking back.

“Maybe I’m just ready to go to school now after all that time away—I’ll never know,” she says. “But I’ve been so much happier here since making that decision. I can’t ask for more.”

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.