IU Talking Points: Boogie Fland is next recruiting domino as Mike Woodson swings for fences
BLOOMINGTON – Another week, another commitment for IU fans to sweat.
This one will begin the weekend, rather than end it, and could lend Friday night’s Hoosier Hysteria gathering an even greater celebratory air. Boogie Fland, a five-star point/combo guard from White Plains (N.Y.) Archbishop Stepinac, plans to announce his decision Friday from a final three of Indiana, Kentucky and Alabama.
Fland would be the second of the Hoosiers’ big three targets off the board this fall.
Liam McNeeley got IU started in the 2024 class when he picked the Hoosiers over Kansas during a decision broadcast Sunday on ESPN. He immediately name-checked the next two players he wants to follow him to Bloomington.
“My first call right here will be to the man DQ,” McNeeley said, motioning to his Montverde Academy teammate standing to one side. “We need Derik Queen to be a Hoosier.”
Insider: Why McNeeley's blue-chip commitment for Woodson is different, what that means.
The next name out of his mouth? Boogie Fland.
“That call’s coming,” McNeeley told ESPN recruiting director Paul Biancardi.
Fland is a five-star prospect, according to three of the four major recruiting services (ESPN, Rivals, On3Sports). Only 247Sports sees him as a four-star, and that service is the only one not including Fland among its top 20 recruits nationally.
He’s still No. 33 according to 247, so the difference isn’t that great. Consensus says he’s among the best lead guards in his class, and like McNeeley, Fland would be an immediate impact player for the Hoosiers.
“There’s a couple of areas where I think Fland would really help Indiana. One, he has really good understanding of pace," ESPN college basketball expert Jeff Borzello said. "He’s fast with the ball in his hands, pushes the ball up the floor, but it’s not just go, go, go all the time. He can adjust pace effectively, and his change of direction is also at a high level.
"The second thing is Fland can play either guard position, which would give Mike Woodson some options on the recruiting trail next spring, whether it’s a late signee or someone in the portal. With that said, he has the ability to be Indiana’s starting point guard from day one if he commits to the Hoosiers. He can get to the rim, he’s a streaky but capable 3-point shooter and he looked better as a playmaker in the summer with his vision and passing ability. It would be a huge commitment from a talent perspective and a huge recruiting win — which is becoming something of a theme for Woodson — considering the other schools involved throughout Fland’s recruitment.”
Which begs the question: Where’s he going?
At time of writing, intelligence on Fland’s decision is murky at best.
McNeeley was perceived, at least, to be leaning toward Indiana heading into his commitment weekend. Whether fair or not, anyone buying it ultimate backed the right horse.
Fland has proven harder to read. There does seem to be relative consensus that Alabama is a firm third, though no one we’ve talked to has flatly ruled out the Crimson Tide.
That leaves Indiana or Kentucky, two rivals that just announced a four-year series starting in 2025, battling it out for a guard who might not need college basketball long enough to play in any of those games.
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John Calipari’s track record developing professional-caliber guards speaks for itself — John Wall, De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Maxey, etc. Mike Woodson’s resume measures up well, though, when you combine his work with players like Ray Felton and Joe Johnson in the NBA with Jalen Hood-Schifino’s development last year.
If we can assume a two-horse race — and all assumptions in recruiting are dangerous — it’s fair to say there’s more smoke around IU as Friday approaches. That’s despite Fland having taken senior-year official visits to Alabama and Kentucky but not Bloomington, though he was on campus for a junior-year official during the summer.
That smoke might also just reflect the momentum Indiana enjoys in the afterglow of McNeeley’s commitment. Landing Fland on Friday would kick that into overdrive, and guarantee the Hoosiers at least two of their three big Class of 2024 targets.
What about Derik Queen's recruitment?
Queen is expected to take his Maryland official this weekend. It’s important for Queen, who’s from Baltimore and has long been seen as an in-state priority.
It’s also important because it will be Queen’s last visit, meaning he should shift into decision mode not long after. Queen appears likely to sign in the November window.
Queen’s recruitment is harder to read, and probably won’t clarify itself until after this weekend. But with one of those three prime targets in the fold and another potentially committing this weekend, it’s worth putting this class’s potential into some historical perspective.
The folks over at 247Sports keep a pretty detailed database of past recruiting wins by school. That database even predates a time when recruiting rankings were mainstream.
For example, according to 247Sports’ all-time list, D.J. White (Class of 2004) — don’t you feel old now? — sits eighth among Indiana signees. That’s deserved. White was a McDonald’s All American coming out of Evergeen (Ala.) Hillcrest. The reference is meant to give you a sense of context.
According to that database, McNeeley is the fourth-highest-ranked recruit ever to pick IU, behind only Romeo Langford, Mackenzie Mgbako and Noah Vonleh. Given he’s ranked just ahead of McNeeley (No. 12 vs. No. 15 according to 247Sports), Queen would likely land in that top five as well.
Fland would fall further down, since he’s ranked slightly lower by 247 than other services. But his overall ranking (No. 33) would probably slide him behind Khristian Lander into eighth all-time, pushing White down a spot.
Assuming those forecasts are accurate, that would also mean Woodson has already accounted for four of the top 10 recruits in Indiana history, per 247. Hood-Schifino and Malik Reneau would fall seventh and 10th, respectively.
If IU landed both Queen and Fland, that would bump everyone down an extra spot and it would become five of 11, but the feat would remain impressive either way.
For wider perspective, according to 247’s class calculator tool, landing both of those players would — as of now — give Woodson the No. 2 recruiting class nationally. That’s always a moving target, given commitments elsewhere can change the math. But it’s probably safe to assume sweeping all three would hand the Hoosiers a top-10 class, at worst.
Indiana’s ability to compete for elite-level talent has come a long way in a short time under Woodson.
How will Dexter Williams figure into IU QB mix?
Coach Tom Allen did little to dampen uncertainty around his quarterback position Monday, after another weekend of largely unsuccessful rotation between Tayven Jackson and Brendan Sorsby.
“Bottom line is, we definitely want to be able to have some continuity there,” Allen said, 48 hours after spinning through his two redshirt freshmen so regularly it would have been difficult for either to find continuity. “I know we’ve obviously had some back and forth with that throughout the course of the season, as we have two young guys that we are trying to grow and develop.”
Setting aside the effect that rotation has had on them, could there be a way off this merry-go-round that involves neither Jackson, nor Sorsby?
Dexter Williams dressed Saturday for the first time all season, but he’s been in pads in at least portions of practice since fall camp. Saturday was the first time Williams was listed as questionable, rather than out, in Indiana’s pregame availability report. While Allen said Williams would only have been used in emergency situations at Michigan, the coach declined to pour cold water on Williams possibly returning to the field soon.
“He's progressing, and he'll be a guy that's, each week has grown in his ability to be ready,” Allen said. “That's even more so this past weekend. He obviously dressed, was ready to be in emergency situation if need be. So yeah, he's getting closer and closer.”
Williams’ knee injury originally led Allen to believe he’d be out a year or more. Only when doctors performed surgery and were able to visualize the injury could they fully determine it was less severe than expected, and set Williams on a shorter recovery.
Williams has appeared to hit benchmarks in that recovery faster than Allen expected.
But the journey from “only if absolutely necessary” to being in the conversation to start seems like a long one to take in just one week.
Given Williams’ success last season, Allen’s comfort with his leadership and the one thing — experience — Williams has over Jackson and Sorsby, it’s not hard to see him pushing his way into Allen’s quarterback thinking at some point, if neither redshirt freshman asserts control over the position soon.
Trivia
IU will host its annual Hoosier Hysteria event Friday night. When did the men’s basketball program first join the tradition of what we used to call college basketball’s midnight madness?
Hoosier Hysteria, plus Odds & Ends
∎ Hoosier Hysteria begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Doors open at 6:15 for students, 6:30 for the public. Everyone is asked to bring canned goods, per usual.
∎ Fans are encouraged to enter the athletics complex for parking from the State Road 45/46 bypass, as 17th Street will be closed from 5:30-6:30 for the homecoming parade. There will be food trucks in the Assembly Hall parking lot until approximately 6:30.
∎ Rhett Lewis and Meghan McKeown will emcee the event. It will include team introductions, remarks from both coaches, a 3-point shooting contest, a skills contest and “other basketball activities, followed by a halfcourt shot for tuition.”
∎ Gucci Mane will perform at the conclusion of Hoosier Hysteria.
∎ As always, fans wishing to watch remotely can do so by subscribing to BTN+.
∎ IU’s game next week will kick off at noon, Oct. 28, at Penn State.
∎ Both Christian Turner and Josh Henderson are expected to practice for IU this week. Their involvement Saturday against Rutgers could be crucial to Indiana’s chance of a victory.
∎ A few folks have asked recently about when we’ll hear more on Indiana’s next apparel deal. The short answer is I’m not sure, that I’m surprised we haven’t already. The long answer is that those things are going to look very different, I suspect, going forward than they have in the past 10-15 years, for a variety of reasons, including NIL. Therefore, I think there may be more in this negotiation that deals with structure and purpose, rather than simply renewing or replacing at an already established market cost. Still, I'm guessing something develops soon.
Answer
So, we cheated this week. Talking Points did some digging, and it’s not quite clear when IU first joined the midnight madness trend.
Sources in the department believe it would’ve happened sometime around the 1987 national championship season. No event of the kind is mentioned before that ’87 season in Steve Alford’s book “Playing For Knight,” which chronicled Alford’s Indiana career, so it might have been after he graduated.
Or he might have just omitted it for whatever reason. In any event, if you’ll forgive a question without a hard answer, it still felt like the right tone for this week’s trivia section.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball recruiting: Boogie Fland, Derik Queen top wish list
