Arkansas star freshman Boogie Fland, a projected top-10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season due to a hand injury, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported on Tuesday. Fland has been dealing with the injury since the Razorbacks’ matchup against Florida on Jan. 11.
“Boogie’s hand, he fell in the game at our place against Florida,” Razorbacks coach John Calipari told reporters on Saturday. “Billy (Richmond) jumped on him, so his hand is pretty bad. Don’t know what we’ll do going forward, but we’ve got to make sure that we get that thing right.”
Fland entered the week ranked second on his team in points (15.1) behind Adou Thiero and first in assists (5.7). Fland scored four points and dished out six assists in Arkansas’ 83-65 loss to Missouri on Saturday, which dropped the Razorbacks to 0-5 in SEC play in Calipari’s first season as coach. Fland is the No. 9 ranked player in the CBS Sports NBA Draft Prospect Rankings.
The former Kentucky signee followed Calipari from Lexington to Arkansas alongside fellow freshmen Karter Knox and Richmond. Fland ranked as the No. 22 recruit in the 2024 recruiting cycle by 247Sports and was the program’s second-highest ranked signee of the modern era behind Nick Smith, the No. 1 recruit in 2022.
What does this mean for Arkansas?
Year 1 of the Calipari era hasn’t gone according to plan following his highly publicized exit from Kentucky. At 0-5, Arkansas and South Carolina are the only SEC teams without a win in conference play heading into the fourth week of the new year and three of Arkansas’ five losses have been by double-digits. Arkansas opened conference play with a 76-52 loss to Tennessee on the road and has sustained losses to Ole Miss, Florida, LSU and Missouri since.
Fland’s injury is a big deal because the Razorbacks are losing a proven scorer and also the player that’s been facilitating the offense. Former FAU star Johnell Davis, the No. 1 ranked player in the transfer portal by CBS Sports, has struggled in a more limited role under Calipari. Davis is averaging 8.3 points and 1.4 assists in just over 28 minutes per game after averaging a career-high 18.2 points last season.
Arkansas wasn’t included in CBS Sports’ latest Bracketology projections by Jerry Palm. Arkansas is 1-7 in Quad 1 games, with the lone victory coming on a neutral court against Michigan last month. The Razorbacks have the advantage of potentially adding to their résumé because of the difficult remaining schedule that includes matchups on the road against Kentucky, Alabama, Texas A&M and Texas.
Wins without Fland, arguably their most impactful player, will be hard to come by moving forward unless someone like Davis takes a huge jump down the stretch.
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