Haley Cavinder is returning to Miami to join her twin sister Hanna for the twins’ final season of eligibility, Haley announced via Instagram on Thursday.

Both sisters announced in April 2023 that they were stepping away from college basketball and wouldn’t return to Miami. In interviews, they said at the time they were pursuing outside opportunities, such as with the WWE, whom both sisters signed NIL deals with.

But in October, Haley announced she was returning and entered the transfer portal, where she eventually committed to play for TCU in 2024-25. Hanna announced via X on Wednesday that she was returning to Miami. A day later, Haley announced she changed her commitment from TCU to Miami to join her sister.

“My last season of basketball was one of the most successful & challenging yrs of my life but it helped me grow immensely,” Hanna wrote. “The past few months I have been itching to get back to the game that I thought I lost the passion for. With that being said, I am returning for one more szn.”

My last season of basketball was one of the most successful & challenging yrs of my life but it helped me grow immensely. The past few months I have been itching to get back to the game that I thought I lost the passion for. With that being said, I am returning for…

Katie Meier, who led Miami’s women’s basketball program to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances including a trip to the Elite Eight last season, is retiring from coaching and transitioning into a new role as a special adviser with the school, she announced Thursday.

Meier, 56, was named the national coach of the year in 2013 by the Associated Press and USA Basketball and is the school’s all-time winningest coach (men’s or women’s) with 362 victories. She led the Hurricanes to 11 20-win seasons and was the ACC’s longest-tenured coach.

“Miami is one of the top women’s basketball programs in the country, and our almost two decades of success has certainly proven that,” Meier said in a statement.

pic.twitter.com/Z6ZmyCEogP

— Katie Meier (@CoachKatieMeier) March 21, 2024

Meier played at Duke and began her coaching career at Charlotte in 2001 before landing in Coral Gables. Miami finished 19-12 this season and just missed qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.

Athletic director Dan Radakovich said Meier is “an incredible ambassador not only for Miami basketball but for women’s basketball and for the University of Miami.”

“Miami is an incredibly special place, and my journey here has been an honor and a privilege,” Meier said. “Today is a day to celebrate and…

The Athletic has live coverage of Selection Sunday and the Women’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal

The final full day of conference tournaments has come and gone, and wow, what a jam-packed slate. We ultimately came away without any upsets that would put a potential at-large bid in question, but we witnessed some great games and competition.

For the first time since 2002, Kent State is headed to the NCAA Tournament. California Baptist, in Year 6 as a Division I program, earned its first ticket to the Big Dance. Norfolk State matched last season’s win total and tied its program DI record with 26 wins this season after punching its ticket to the tournament as well, back for a second straight year. Fairfield won its 31st game of the season, outlasting Niagara in one of the most frenetic games of the past few weeks to secure its trip to March Madness.

Get your women’s March Madness printable bracket

In the most anticipated game of the day, Princeton won the Ivy League championship comfortably, likely denying the possibility of the Ivy as a two-bid conference.

So on Selection Sunday, as we dive into our final Bracket Watch, a quick thank you for following along. We have a wealth of tournament coverage coming as the brackets are revealed (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) on the selection show. You…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

For the first time in program history, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. It’s Year 12 for coach Royce Chadwick, at his fourth Division I head coaching stop, adding a remarkable note to a career that’s spanned over 40 years.

This is what March is all about. Teams can change the course of history for their program with a hot run when everything clicks into place for a shining moment.

Peeling back the curtains to the game, Lamar — Corpus Cristi’s opponent —- was coming off its best season since 2019 and looked on the brink of making its first NCAA Tournament in over a decade. It had won the Southland regular-season title, beating Corpus Christi twice in the regular season. Aqua Franklin has steadily built this program up, culminating in a breakout Year 5.

This, unfortunately, is also March.

One ball bounce or slip in focus can be the difference between the Big Dance and the end. It’s apt to remember that, because on one side, the games produce cheers and unforgettable memories, and the other side lacks the same picturesque quality.

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Mid-majors

High-stakes basketball is in full force as a number of conference tournaments have reached either their quarterfinal or semifinal rounds. The Pac-12, Big Ten and Atlantic 10 are down to four teams, while the ACC and SEC have eight remaining. That means that undefeated South Carolina will make its conference tournament debut on Friday at noon ET against Texas A&M. The Gamecocks haven’t lost a regular-season game in two years and are entering the SEC tournament undefeated for the second consecutive season. This will also be the third straight year in which the Gamecocks will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. “They share the basketball. They defend,” coach Dawn Staley said last week. “We’ve got spectacular players.”

No matter their result this weekend, the Gamecocks will almost assuredly be the No. 1 overall seed come Selection Sunday. But how they perform in the lead-up to field of 68’s announcement remains a worthwhile watch. Keep tabs on their greatness. A matchup against reigning national champion LSU might also be a few days away.

What does North Carolina’s messy loss mean to its tournament chances?

For the majority of the first half of North Carolina’s matchup against Miami, it appeared as if the Tar Heels would move on to the ACC semifinals…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Power conferences understandably dominate discussion, particularly Bubble Watch talk, this time of year. All the teams fighting in the middle, yearning for resume-supplementing wins, provide some of the most notable matchups and storylines.

However, it’s worth pausing and noting some of the more under-the-radar seasons in the country, especially the programs that we are trending toward hearing about in March. I can think of few teams more deserving of that mention than Marshall.

The Thundering Herd are 20-6, a standout record on its own but even more notable when recognizing this is the first time since the 2016 season they have eclipsed the 20-win mark and just the second time since they left the Southern Conference in 1997. This is West Virginia native Kim Caldwell’s first season at the helm in Huntington. She led her alma mater, DII Glenville State, for seven seasons, including a national championship in 2022. In her first foray as a head coach at the highest level of collegiate basketball, something special is brewing.

Find it your local newspaper #WeAreMarshall

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s & women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

The college season has been defined by stellar play in the youth of the game, with true freshmen piecing together some of the best collegiate seasons we’ve seen in basketball history. That’s unlikely to change as we head into March, as many of the top freshmen headline teams ripe to make runs in the NCAA Tournament.

Who are the freshmen going under the radar you need to know about who could make a splash in March?

Syracuse has been a superb watch this season, led by silky scorer Dyaisha Fair. Syracuse has a 41.1 percent offensive rebound rate, the fifth highest rate in the NCAA, according to CBB Analytics. More than 20 percent of the Orange’s total points scored come from second-chance opportunities.

Enter Alyssa Latham. The 6-foot-2 freshman has started the majority of the season for Syracuse and embodies the principles that have spurred on coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s team. Latham hustles like a sixth-year grad student, attacking the glass with a ferocity, blocking shots with tenacity and racking up mileage like few bigs can. Her offensive game is still unearthing, but she’s shown…

You’ve seen the three letters: NIL.

You’ve heard the buzz these three letters have caused around college sports, read headlines about universities filing lawsuits against the NCAA on the issue and watched commercials of athletes like LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne tumbling while wearing Vuori joggers or USC quarterback Caleb Williams drinking Dr. Pepper.

But what does NIL — “name, image and likeness” — encompass, and why is the line between what’s within the rules and what isn’t so difficult to discern?

Here’s a breakdown of the acronym that has changed college sports:

What is NIL? How’d we get to this point in college sports?

NIL stands for “name, image and likeness” and has become the universal shorthand for college athletes’ ability to become paid endorsers and monetize their success outside of their school-funded scholarships and benefits. Before July 1, 2021, college athletes were not permitted to receive profits from their name, image and likeness. Since then … a lot has happened.

That summer, in response to pressure from laws passed by state legislatures that permitted varying levels of NIL activity, the NCAA created an interim NIL policy: For schools in states with laws on the books, the state law would guide them; otherwise, schools could set their…

This offseason, the NCAA allowed college basketball coaching staffs to add two coaches to their rosters. Though these coaches can’t participate in off-campus recruiting, they can coach the players, and that’s a win-win: More coaches get opportunities on the sideline, and more players get direct attention in practices and games. (Hey, way to go, NCAA!)

This means there are roughly 1,500 assistants in women’s college basketball. And no, not all of them will go on to become head coaches. And frankly, some of them don’t want to. But many are gleaning as much as they can in their roles so that if the call comes, they’re ready to run a program as a first-time head coach.

Through conversations with coaches and trusted women’s college basketball insiders across the country, I’ve identified some of those rising stars. I did the same in 2020 and 2021 (not to break my arm patting myself on the back, but …), and from those lists, roughly half are running their own programs.

So, I’m hitting like Caitlin Clark pulling up from 3 on the left wing here, and I’m hoping I don’t have a heat check anytime soon.

As always, these are the parameters: These are coaches who have never led their own NCAA programs. I’ve done my best not to repeat coaches who’ve been on previous…

We’ve reached one of my favorite points of the college basketball season. That might seem like a strange statement since we’re past most of the high-profile nonconference matchups and not quite into league play. There aren’t too many games that immediately scream must-watch on the calendar.

But what has happened in the past week is a number of teams have gone on the road for the first time — and I’m talking true road games, not neutral sites or playing small in-state schools where traveling fans can outnumber the home crowd. These are honest-to-goodness hostile environments where road teams face real adversity. There’s nothing more illuminating than seeing how players respond in unfavorable situations when they can’t rely on their fan base to swing momentum back in their direction, but the schedule doesn’t provide too many opportunities before the start of conference play.

Thankfully, we got to see a good chunk of the top 25 take their shows on the road this week. Here’s what I learned.

Dropped out: UNLV

Almost famous: West Virginia, Washington St., Washington

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Texas had played three neutral site games in the Virgin Islands during the first part of the schedule, but the total attendance during that tournament was dwarfed by the crowd in the McKale Center as the…