REPORT: Emily La Chapell Is Entering The Transfer Portal

If you’re a long time women’s basketball fan who’s on Twitter, then you’re already familiar with Raoul_000 and the very in-depth WBB Blog. With that point of trustworthiness in mind, we have news that Marquette women’s basketball guard Emily La Chapell will be entering the transfer portal.

La Chapell was a freshman for Marquette in 2022-23. She averaged 5.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game in 32 appearances with 20 starts. After a rough start to the year behind the three-point line, La Chapell gave the Golden Eagles a bit of heat from beyond the arc over the final 20 games of the year, knocking down 33% of her three long range attempts per game.

Even with head coach Megan Duffy adding three transfers already this offseason and bringing in two freshmen, it seemed clear that La Chapell would play a major role for the Golden Eagles next season. Marquette was going to be bringing back four starters from last year’s NCAA tournament team, with Jordan King, Rose Nkumu, and Liza Karlen joining La Chapell on the floor. Now that’s not the case, and we’re left wondering what exactly is going on.

After all, we already talked about the odd way that Duffy and the program handled Senior Day. Then there’s the fact that Makiyah Williams transferred out right after the season was over, not to mention the fact that Aizhanique Mayo left the team right before the season started. Tack on this transfer, well after the portal window to be eligible immediately closed in mid-May to things, and we can’t help but say “what’s wrong at the McGuire Center?”

Maybe this is unrelated. Maybe there’s something on La Chapell’s side of things and this has very little to do with how Duffy is running her show. That’s possible. If that’s the case, then we’re still wondering what’s going on in the program, there’s just one less piece of evidence that something is not going well, even if Duffy has a record of 87-37 in four seasons.

Let’s head to the newly updated scholarship chart....

It is possible that we are not done changing the chart for the 2023-24 season. As recently as May 24th, Ben Steele said in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “it’s possible that head coach Megan Duffy isn’t done finding new faces.” I don’t know where those faces would come from at this point in the timeline, but the fact of the matter is that the Golden Eagles do have four open scholarships for the fall now. If there are sophomore or junior transfers floating around out there that fit the puzzle, that would make a lot of sense for the Golden Eagles. They stand to lose as many as five of the 11 women on the roster after the 2023-24 season if Claire Kaifes, Liza Karlen, and Rose Nkumu choose to end their collegiate careers instead of coming back for a COVID bonus season of eligibility. At that point, Marquette will be in need of bodies on the roster more than anything else, and adding a late transfer now would help in that regard.