Haley Cavinder announces shocking return to college basketball

By Justin Terranova

At least one Cavinder isn’t ready to call it a career.

Haley Cavinder announced on Instagram on Friday she is returning to college basketball with a highlight video captioned: “see you next season, #year5.”

Haley and twin sister Hanna retired from the sport after helping Miami reach the Elite 8 last season.

Haley, though, will not return for the upcoming season that begins next month and instead will focus on the 2024-’25 season.

“As a businesswoman, she’s excited to see what type of opportunities there might be in the portal,” Haley’s agent, Jeff Hoffman, told On3.com.

“It comes from a foundation of she misses basketball more than anything in the world and as it approaches another season, even more so. She is going to hop in the portal. She’s 100% making her return to college basketball.”

Even though she is in the transfer portal, a return to Miami is “100 percent on the table” for the NIL trailblazer, according to Hoffman.

The 5-foot-6 guard averaged 12 points and five rebounds per game last season, while sister Hanna came off the bench for the Hurricanes.

The pair announced together in March that they were leaving the sport to become full-time influencers.

The decision, though, did not come easy with Haley admitting she had serious reservations about leaving the sport and debating their futures nearly fractured the pair.

“We got in a fight, if you really want to know the tea, and I was like ‘Hanna, I’m going back,’ and she was like, ‘I’m not going back, I’m not doing it anymore,'” Haley said of the initial decision on their “Twin Talk” podcast in August.

“We made it to the Elite 8, that was Hanna and I’s goal. Hanna didn’t want to play, so she made me quit basketball.”

Hanna noted she was “so done” with college basketball on the podcast after dealing with relentless trolling given her limited role on the court.

Hanna, though, commented on Haley’s Instagram post, seemingly giving it her stamp of approval: “She’s back – on Friday the 13th. That’s crazy.”

The twins, 22, have partnerships with Raising Cane’s, Champs Sports and Victoria’s Secret, and they have both trained with WWE after signing an NIL deal with the wrestling company.

They played the first three seasons of their college careers at Fresno State.