Haley Cavinder isn’t done with college basketball quite yet apparently.
ESPN reported on Friday – and sources familiar with the situation later confirmed to For The Win – that Cavinder is in the transfer portal.
Fans might remember that Haley and her twin sister Hanna retired from college basketball after a season at Miami, in which they helped Katie Meier’s Hurricanes go on a historic March run, making the Elite Eight for the first time ever and notching upset wins over Oklahoma State, Indiana and Villanova along the way.
Despite each having a year of eligibility left, the Cavinders left the life of being a college athlete behind to capitalize on their following of 4.5 million on TikTok to become full-time influencers, signing on with Jake Paul’s Betr and working with the WWE.
But Haley apparently misses the game of basketball. She is in the portal, while her sister Hanna is not.
@cavindertwins missed it, see you next szn #fyp #basketball #foryou
It’s too late in the year for Cavinder to transfer somewhere now and be eligible to play this season, so she’ll return to the court in the 2024-25 campaign.
ESPN’s report said that Cavinder entering the transfer portal is “exploratory and that staying at Miami is certainly possible.” But that might prove to be tricky as Miami already brough in a new starting point guard via the transfer portal in Shayeann Day-Wilson, a former ACC Rookie of the Year at Duke.
I can confirm through multiple sources that, indeed, Haley Cavinder is in the portal (and Hanna Cavinder is not). #ncaaW https://t.co/YnQGxQulTf
— Mitchell Northam (@primetimeMitch) October 13, 2023
Even if a return to the Hurricanes’ roster doesn’t happen, there are many teams who would happily add Cavinder to their roster for a year. After winning the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year award and averaging 19.8 points per game in back-to-back seasons at Fresno State, Cavinder proved she could play at the Power Five level at Miami, where she started in each of the Hurricanes’ 35 games last season and shot a career-best 40.4 percent from behind the arc en route to earning a spot on the All-ACC team.
For her career, Cavinder averages 16.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 35.9 percent from 3-point land.
Meanwhile, while Hanna Cavinder was a two-time All-Mountain West selection at Fresno State, she was a reserve at Miami, playing 16.7 minutes per game and scoring a career-low 3.8 points per game. By not entering the portal like her sister, it seems like Hanna will remain on the sidelines as Haley returns to the court.
