Who are the Cavinder twins? Here’s how they got to Fresno State, became TikTok sensations
Fresno State twins Haley and Hanna Cavinder had more than 4 million followers across social media platforms, but the stars of the Bulldogs’ women’s basketball team absolutely took off on Thursday, taking advantage of NCAA rule changes that allow them to profit off their Name, Image and Likeness.
A deal with Boost Mobile was featured on a video board in Times Square. They also have an endorsement with Six Star Pro Nutrition, with one or two more deals to be announced with in the next few days. They were guests on the CBS, CNBC Power Lunch, ESPN Outside The Lines, ABC News Live.
Who are they?
“They are highly-competitive, fun loving, athletic basketball players with an entrepreneurial spirit,” said Mandi Carver, a Bulldogs assistant coach.
“They are the perfect representation of the modern-day collegiate athlete,” said Frank Pucher, the senior associate athletics director for external relations at Fresno State. “By that I mean they are incredibly hard-working in their sport, they excel academically and they have clearly thought about and defined the path they want to go in life beyond sport. They’ve prepared themselves for that and they’ve taken advantage of it.”
“Hanna and Haley have great energy which leans into a competitive passion for both life and basketball,” Bulldogs’ women’s basketball coach Jaime White said.
The Cavinders are listed as juniors on the Bulldogs’ 2021-22 roster, but with eligibility relief granted due to the coronavirus pandemic they could play three more seasons of basketball for the Bulldogs as one of the most dynamic duos in the Mountain West Conference.
Haley Cavinder last season was the conference player of the year, leading the MW at 19.8 points a game with 7.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Hanna Cavinder was third in the conference in scoring, averaging 17 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists.
White and her staff recruited them out of Gilbert, Ariz., recruiting them as a duo, which not every school did, and which was a mistake.
“We were going to play college basketball together and that was non-negotiable, a deal-breaker, because that always was the dream and bottom line,” Hanna Cavinder said last season. “We’re better together.”
The twins were born in South Bend, Ind., and Tom and Katie Cavinder have five girls – Brooke, Brandi, Haley, Hanna and Natalie.
They are, appropriately enough, business marketing majors.
And, their social media fame started almost as a lark, something to do while stranded at home during COVID-19. The sisters have 3.3 million followers on TikTok.
“We thought, why not start dribbling basketballs to a beat and our audience or whoever saw it and loved it,” Haley Cavinder told The Bee, back in April. “So we continued to make those videos and it kind of grew from there.”
But the winning formula has been the same, on the court and on social media.
“The two of them together make their content more compelling, and they know that,” said Blake Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of the marketing platform Opendorse. “They lean into it and it’s also very natural, the camaraderie they have. It’s who they are. They’re authentic and the content that they create, the more engaging it is for the audience. The Cavinder twins are solid evidence of that.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 4:16 PM.