GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After watching his guys Euro-step through dummies and toss in a flurry of floaters, Taurean Green called for an extended 3-point shooting drill. For the next 25 minutes, sophomore Boogie Fland and freshman CJ Ingram launched long balls, with Fland, the combo guard, dropping 14 of 15 in one late stretch before Green wrapped the session.
 
“Feeling good,” Fland nodded as he left the floor Friday. “Oh yeah.” 
 
Green, the Florida assistant coach and director of player development, flashed a smile.  
 
“He’s getting there,” Green grinned. 
 
There means healthy. For now, that’s the goal. Period. The basketball package is in place. No one will doubt that. But for Fland, the 6-foot-2, 184-pound combo guard and projected heir to first-team All American, Final Four Most Outstanding Player and NCAA champion Walter Clayton Jr. as the Gators’ PG1, the 2025-26 season is about feeling whole for the first time in his brief collegiate career. 
 
Fland, who just turned 19 last month, came to UF through the transfer portal and via Southeastern Conference rival Arkansas, where a year ago he was a heralded freshman and – out of New York City – one of the top play-making prospects in the country. The only point guards ranked ahead of Fland in his recruiting class were Dylan Harper (Rutgers) and Egor Demin (Brigham Young), both of whom had outstanding statistical freshman seasons and were selected second and eighth, respectively, in the 2025 NBA Draft. 
 
A similar one-and-done trajectory was Fland’s plan, but he arrived at Arkansas last summer with a tender hernia that he eventually (with input from team doctors) chose to play through. That was quite the task for a guy who thrived on explosiveness and elite speed, but Fland made due. Then came a thumb injury early in SEC play, half a season on the sidelines, a return to action in the NCAA Tournament and, eventually, a change of scenery. 
 
Now, it’s about a new season, new challenge and new team – at 100 percent. Hernia surgery was seven weeks ago. Fland has been on the floor for workouts for two weeks. He’s been a regular in the weight room in an effort to put on more muscle (13 pounds, so far). He’s on schedule to be cleared for the start preseason drills, which start Thursday, the first day of UF fall semester classes. 

(From @BoogieFland YouTube channel)

“I’ve always kind of played through stuff. You want to be tough,” said Fland, who in May pulled out of the NBA evaluation process to become a last-minute – and highly coveted – addition to the transfer portal. “So, I just feel like, this year, if I can start healthy and stay healthy and do everything to prevent those injuries – from being in the training room, investing in my body and believing in everything we’re doing here – that it will make a big difference. And I believe I am invested in everything we’re trying to do here.”

 

The feeling is mutual. 

 

“He’s definitely a great NBA prospect, and a guy that I anticipate not being on this campus for a long time,” UF coach Todd Golden said of a player whose game scouts have likened to NBA stars Darius Garland and Tyrese Maxey. “If he has a good year next [season], I would anticipate him moving on, which is awesome, and my hope is that we can help him get to that goal.”

 

The Gators, in looking to fill the voids left by Clayton and his remarkable perimeter mates, Alijah Martin and Will Richard, got a good one out of the portal early in Princeton’s Xaivian Lee, a first-team All-Ivy League selection. With a plan in place to move forward Thomas Haugh out to Richard’s wing spot, the roster appeared set, but then senior guard Denzel Aberdeen, set to take over at the point, surprised the UF coaches and bolted for Kentucky, thus leaving a huge hole on the ball. 

 

On that front, the addition of Fland was an orange and blue windfall. He’s the first former McDonald’s All American to join the program since Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann in 2019. He is one of only consensus two top-20 prep prospects (along with Lewis) to come to Florida since Billy Donovan bolted to coach in the NBA. 

 

“I thought he was a bucket when I first saw him in high school. A guy who was shooting a ton of 3s and attacking the basket,” said Florida associate head coach Korey McCray, who tutors the backcourt players. “But he’s become such a complete guard; score, shoot, pass, facilitate, smart and one of the best assist-to-turnover guys in the SEC last year. He’s just very talented … and really, really fast.” 

 

Johnuel Fland loved to dance as a toddler. So much that his mother nicknamed him “Boogie.” It stuck. So did his moves, the shaking and baking of which translated to the courts in the Bronx, New York, where Fland led Archbishop Stepinac to consecutive Catholic High School Association titles as a junior and senior and was named Most Valuable Player of the finals in both years. As a senior, he averaged 19.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.4 steals per game. Fland originally signed early with Kentucky, but backed out when John Calipari made the stunning jump to Arkansas after the ’23-24 season. Fland was one of five current or incoming Wildcats who followed “Coach Cal” to Fayetteville.

Despite dealing with some discomfort from the hernia, Fland was averaging 15.5 points, 5.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds when he injured his thumb Jan. 11 in a 71-63 home loss to the Gators. He had 15 points, four assists and played through the pain that game, as well as two games after that, before undergoing surgery 10 days later. He missed 15 games before returning for the NCAA Tournament, starting with an upset of 7-seed Kansas, but a rusty Fland managed just 12 points on 4-for-18 shooting over his three tournament games, including an overtime loss to Texas Tech in the Sweet 16. 
 
“It was a season filled with ups and downs. I loved my teammates, but trust, I think, was something we kind of lacked, but we pushed through,” Fland said. “When I got back [from the injury], everybody was playing their best, so I wasn’t looking to fill a greater role. I just wanted to fit in the best I could. It ended up being a rewarding season and I feel like everybody took something from it, as far as life’s lessons. For me, I did a lot of self-evaluation.”
 
The mirror-gazing lasted through his flirtation with the NBA — feedback was luke warm — and into his time in the portal. The Razorbacks wanted their point guard back, but Golden and his coaches hit a home run in their meeting with Fland and laid out their vision for his role on the defending national champions. He committed on his official visit.

In landing both Fland and Lee, the Gators plan on rolling out a starting backcourt of two highly skilled and talented scorers, both known for their unselfishness. Over the last seven seasons, only one UF player (Andrew Nembhard in 2019-20) has averaged at least five assists. Both Fland and Lee averaged five-plus assists in ’24-25. Lee ranked 19^th nationally in assist rate (36.8 percent), while Fland was 59^th (30.6 percent), with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.7 that was 14^th nationally and second in the SEC. 
 
Though a gifted scorer, Fland loves distributing the ball. Especially in transition. 
 
“I want everybody around me to smile. I thrive off that,” Fland said. “If everybody is having fun that means I’m doing my job.”
 
Figuring out how two high-usage combo guards can play together and off one another – while playing with the best and most experienced returning front court in the country, by the way – will be a challenging (and fascinating) task for the coaching staff in the run-up to the season. 
 
The ’24-25 Gators, remember, finished No. 2 in the nation in offensive efficiency on the way to averaging 84.8 points per game. The UF offense will not deviate far from its principles of playing through two bigs (and ball-screening defenders to death), but things are going to look different with Haugh at the “3” and crashing the glass. 

Golden, ever the believer, is confident the new pieces will fall into place.

“I see it working really, really well. I’m excited about it,” Golden said. “When you have two point guards that are out there making plays, I think it makes your offense really dynamic. So, we’re excited. I think you can have both those guys start the offense. They’re both going to have the ball in their hands a ton, being able to play out of the ball screen, being able to push in transition. They’re weapons that teams are going to have to account for.”

First things first: Fland needs to feel great; the best he has since leaving the Bronx.

He’s getting there.

 

And just in time to step into a situation of sky-high expectations, both for the program (as defending champion, there’s only one way to go) and for Fland (who was pegged to be in the NBA by now).

 

“I feel like that’s all stuff that comes with it. I feel like everybody knows the deal, especially coming to a place where the standard is high,” Fland said. “The goal has to be to go higher. That’s what we have to do and what I’m ready to do. You want those expectations. You want that pressure. That’s why you play the game of basketball, that’s why you love the game and everything that comes with it. You have to go out and perform.”

 

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu