TCU's Haley Cavinder transferring back to Miami
The Cavinder Twins will play college basketball together next year.
A day after Hanna Cavinder announced she would return to Miami for the 2024-25 season, a source tells On3 that Haley Cavinder is leaving TCU to join her sister in South Beach.
The duo announced a year ago they were stepping away from Miami and college athletics. At the time, the NIL stars had become two of the biggest names in college athletics and helped the Hurricanes reach the Elite Eight.
Haley Cavinder entered the transfer portal in October, deciding to re-enter the college basketball world after making a very public decision to leave college basketball. She announced her transfer portal commitment to TCU in November.
Her departure from Fort Worth arrives on the same day news broke that LSU transfer Hailey Van Lith is committing to TCU. In three seasons at Louisville, Van Lith averaged 15.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 42.2% shooting from the field (33.7% from 3-point range). In a career year at Louisville as a junior in 2022-23, she averaged 19.7 points and 3.2 assists per game.
The Cavinder Twins announced their first NIL deal with Boost Mobile in Times Square on the first day of college sports’ new era on July 1, 2021. From there, they’ve used their combined social media following of more than 5 million to sign with brands like Raising Cane’s, Victoria’s Secret PINK and Champs Sports.
“Hanna and I have decided to not take our fifth year and start a new chapter in our lives,” Haley wrote on social media at the time. “The U will always be home and we are forever proud to be Hurricanes.”
During their first stint at Miami, the twins continued to cash in on their NIL. The NCAA also came down with a recruiting violation against Miami in February regarding the Cavinders. According to the NCAA, the twins had dinner with booster John Ruiz during their recruitment process. Ruiz was not disassociated from the program, though. As one of the penalties, Miami coach Katie Meier sat out the first three games of the 2022-23 season. The twins were not sanctioned.
Meir recently announced her retirement. Miami has since hired Tricia Cullop as its new head coach. The longtime Toledo coach was a six-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year and led the Rockets to five MAC regular season championships and 11 postseason berths.