Fresno State basketball took a risk recruiting 5-foot-6 twins. Here’s how ‘Dogs made it work

The twins, Haley and Hanna Cavinder, 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, quite simply, “We’re better together.”

Not everyone got that a year ago when they were high school seniors in Arizona and, no doubt, the idea of putting two 5-foot-6 guards on the floor no matter how dynamic they might be led to doubts about defending and rebounding.

Arizona Elite, the twins’ club team, matched them up against the best competition every summer to try to prove to coaches that they could thrive together and there were a handful of schools that offered scholarships, plural, one for Haley and one for Hanna, but others that could or would take one but not the other.

“Some coaches, they get this incorrect mindset that somebody isn’t something that they’re looking for,” said Gary Pedersen, Arizona Elite president and coach. “They might not be the prototypical, ‘Hey, you know, this coach wants a 6-foot point guard that’s very slinky and athletic.’ But the girls are plenty athletic and they’re strong as all get-out.

“I think Fresno State saw that, followed them, saw what they could do, and just knew that they could have an impact.”

Three point guards in starting lineup

Fresno State as it turned out didn’t just see two 5-6 guards, it saw three.

Coach Jaime White and her staff put the Cavinder twins in the backcourt with returning junior Aly Gamez, who also is 5-6, and on the floor with Maddi Utti and Wytalla Motta or Brooke Walling or Bree Delaney.

All of a sudden, after a few middle-of-the-pack finishes in the Mountain West, the Bulldogs were a matchup nightmare, going 23-6 overall and 16-2 in the conference.

Some adjustment could be necessary this week at the Mountain West Tournament, playing teams for a second or third time this season. But the Bulldogs go in as the No. 1 seed with a Monday noon quarterfinal against the winner of Sunday’s No. 8-No. 9 matchup between Nevada and New Mexico

They are a favorite in the tournament, and more dynamic perhaps than even White and the Bulldogs’ staff might have imagined.

Fresno State is averaging 75.5 points per game, first in the conference and the highest for the program since 1987.

The Bulldogs have hit 43.5% of their shots, their highest since 2006, and have three of the top four scorers in the league with Utti (15.8 ppg, second), Hanna Cavinder (15.7, third) and Haley Cavinder (15.6, fourth).

They could become the first Mountain West team with three players ranked in the Top 10 in the conference in assists since BYU in 2011 with Hanna Cavinder (3.8, fifth), Haley Cavinder (3.6, sixth) and Gamez (3.3, 10th). Utti, also, is one of the most proficient post passers in the league with 2.4 assists per game, ranking second among bigs and 20th overall.

“I think it has worked out really well,” Hanna Cavinder said. “We didn’t really know how it was going to work out at the beginning of the season, but I think that’s what the coaches thought all along, that we would be on the court together.

“It could be a negative, just because we’re smaller guards, but having three point guards on the court all the time, it’s a really big advantage.”

Holding their own rebounding

More eye-popping than anything, with three 5-6 guards playing 30-plus minutes per game, they are averaging 39.9 rebounds per game, second in the conference and the highest for the Bulldogs in any season since 2009.

And, in conference play they have outscored their opponents by 184 points in the paint, 700 to 516, and have been plus-15 or more points in six games. They were plus-26 (46-20) in a victory at Utah State, which has three starters and a fourth rotation player each 6-foot or taller.

“I saw the potential in the summer,” Gamez said. “But now, I don’t think anybody would be able to predict that.”

Those paint points have come in transition, but also in the half-court with three guards with a knack for driving the basketball and finishing or drawing a second defender and dishing to an open teammate.

“They’ve made us quicker, better ball handlers, better passers in general,” White said. “It’s a little bit of our defense. It’s a little bit our speed and being able to run the floor. Hanna and Haley and Aly all have a knack for finishing around the rim well, so we’re drawing fouls. That’s the hard part – people have to choose sometimes.”

Some of those passes in transition and the half court, just slick. Film sessions, quite often, are fun to watch.

“Yeah, always,” Gamez said.

There are some deft passes – no-look, around defenders, right-handed and left-handed, on a bounce or in the air, a flip right or left, whip it overhand on a bounce and, boom, another layup.

“With the speed that they bring both defensively and offensively, clearly, our transition is better,” White said. “Haley is getting those rebounds and she can just take the ball and Aly can leak out or Hanna can get down the floor, or we can have a really deep outlet and their knack for finishing around the rim, all of them, Aly, Haley and Hanna, all of them, that is a really big deal.

“If you look at the teams that we play and they’re not always finishing at the rim in transition, even on somewhat open layups. And, we’re getting those same layups in halfcourt offense because of their speed and setups.”

White said she did not see Haley Cavinder rebounding the basketball as well as she has – she is averaging 7.3 per game, eighth in the conference and second among guards, and five of the seven players ranked ahead of her and six of seven behind her are all 6-foot or taller.

The others are 5-9, 5-10 and the 5-11 Utti, third with 8.8 per game.

But the Bulldogs coach and her staff saw plenty, recruiting the twins to know they would be immediately impactful.

“When we were recruiting them we just felt like they were so dynamic as far as being able to drive, being able to defend, being able to hit the three,” White said. “We definitely knew that they would help us, because we were losing some guards. And then when they got here the question was, are we going to rotate guards? How are we going to play them together?”

Early on, they just figured it out.

“At first we were just competing,” Haley Cavinder said. “We didn’t know if it was going to come to three guards on the court. It’s hard to think about that – I don’t think a lot of teams do that in the country.

“Coming in, we knew Aly was a good player and Coach White did say to us that we want to play the three of you together. I think she saw something before we all kind of figured it out, and then during practice and once we got on the court it just flowed.”

NCAA dreams

If the Bulldogs can get back in that flow after a regular-season-ending loss at Wyoming, they have a chance to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.

There, they could be a tough matchup against a higher-seeded opponent, coming out of a conference that has not won an NCAA Tournament game since San Diego State won two as a No. 11 seed in 2010.

“Everything we wanted to accomplish as a team, so far it has worked out,” Haley Cavinder said. “We’ve definitely put in the work preseason, all season, just to finish out the rough games, the hard games.

“It has been everything we wanted.”