Former UK basketball recruit, now a freshman star at Arkansas, reportedly out for season
When it rains, it pours for John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The former UK head coach — who departed Lexington last offseason after 15 seasons leading the Wildcats — is off to a nightmarish start at his new post in Fayetteville. Despite a Wednesday night home win over Georgia, the Razorbacks — who were picked to finish fourth in the SEC — are still 12-7 overall and a horrific 1-5 in league play.
On Tuesday, the season-long outlook for Calipari’s first Arkansas team worsened significantly. According to college basketball insider Jon Rothstein, Arkansas freshman guard Boogie Fland will miss the rest of the season due to a hand injury.
On Wednesday, the Arkansas program announced that Fland had successful surgery in New York City to repair an injury to his right thumb. Fland first injured his thumb on Jan. 11 during a home loss to Florida. In Fland’s most recent game — an 18-point loss at Missouri on Saturday — he made only two of his 13 shot attempts in 33 minutes of action.
The Razorbacks said there is no timetable for Fland’s return, and that he will begin rehab immediately with the training staff at Arkansas.
Fland — a former Kentucky recruit who had committed to and signed with the Wildcats while Calipari was at UK — had been one of the few bright spots for the Razorbacks this season. Prior to his surgery, Fland had started all 18 games for Arkansas, with per-game averages of 15.1 points, 5.7 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals. In 34.1 minutes per game, Fland was shooting 39.1% from the field, 36.5% from 3-point range and 83.9% from the free-throw line.
Fland was second on Arkansas in scoring and steals. He was Arkansas’ runaway assists leader and was second on the team in minutes per game.
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During the seismic offseason coaching change that saw Calipari depart to Arkansas and Mark Pope hired at Kentucky, Fland was one of three former class of 2024 recruits for Calipari at Kentucky — along with Billy Richmond III and Karter Knox — that opted to follow Calipari to the Razorbacks.
Fland was a five-star prospect in the 2024 recruiting group out of Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York. According to the 247Sports Composite, Fland — who initially committed to Kentucky in October 2023 — was to be the second-highest rated recruit in Kentucky’s 2024 class, behind center Jayden Quaintance, who is now at Arizona State.
A 2024 McDonald’s All-American, Fland requested a release from the paperwork tying him to play at UK just one day after Pope was officially introduced as the next Kentucky coach at Rupp Arena.
The 6-foot-2 Fland then took an official recruiting visit to Arkansas, before announcing that he would stick with Calipari at his new school.
Fland’s first, and perhaps only, season of college basketball featured several standout individual moments, despite Arkansas’ team struggles. Prior to his surgery, he ranked as a top-20 scorer in the SEC who was also second in the league in assists and first in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.7). Fland began his college career with six straight games scoring in double figures, and he posted a career-high 24 points in Arkansas’ final nonconference game against Oakland, the school that eliminated Calipari and Kentucky in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
Fland had a double-double on Dec. 21 against North Carolina A&T with 12 points and 11 assists.
On ESPN’s recent 2025 NBA draft Big Board, Fland was ranked as the No. 32 overall player in this year’s draft class, which would make him an early second-round selection.
Kentucky’s next home game will be against Arkansas on Feb. 1, with the long-anticipated return of Calipari to Rupp Arena set to dominate the storylines. Before that, though, the Cats (14-4, 3-2) have a pair of road trips to Vanderbilt (15-4, 3-3) on Saturday and No. 6 Tennessee (17-2, 4-2) on Tuesday.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
