It was senior night, so Johnuel “Boogie” Fland knew his emotions would be running high. And that was before the day even arrived. The day of took things to a whole other level.
He was in class that morning when the text came through. It was John Calipari: I’m coming to the game today. Knowing the guy who had just recruited him would be in the building, the Arkansas commit suddenly had even more motivation for that night’s game. “My family was there, my future head coach was there—and just for him to pop up like that was very special,” Fland says. “I just wanted to put on a show.”
It all hit even harder at the gym that night. “I was tearing up before the game, and then once I saw they were honoring me for making the McDonald’s All American Team, the tears came running down,” he says. Once the game tipped, Fland immediately made clear that the emotion of the occasion wouldn’t derail him from performing at the level that has made him a top-20 recruit and arguably one of the top point guards in the 2024 class. The line: 29 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals to lead his Archbishop Stepinac (NY) squad to a senior-night dub.
His only slight disappointment afterward? “Man, I was trying to get 50,” Fland says. “I was locked in.”
It was a dominant but not at all surprising showing from Fland, the 6-3, 175-pound, Bronx-born guard who checks all the boxes for an elite floor general. Explosive and in-control, he dictates pace as a scorer and playmaker, a skill set made clear by the players whose games he works to emulate: everyone from LeBron and SGA to Ja Morant, Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley. That includes working to perfect one of the game’s most unstoppable shots.
“If you go on YouTube and search my name, you’ll see a step-back as the thumbnail. Just watch how many step-backs I do,” he says. “I’m so quick, they try to play the shot and the drive, and when I see that they’re playing the drive, it’s easy for me to snatch back and step back.”
The path that took Fland from the Bronx to White Plains (where Stepinac is located) and will see him in Lexington leading a typically loaded Wildcat recruiting class next winter has included plenty of stops that allowed him to show his skill set and sky-high potential. He’s been among the best hoopers at his age level since anyone can remember. “When I was in, I think, second grade, we were ranked top 25 in the country,” he says of his AAU squad. “Yeah, second grade, but it was something to us.”
A few years later, he led his AAU team to the national championship game, where he missed what could have been a game-winning shot. “That moment taught me that, you know, there’s going to be lows,” he says now. “I was so used to winning. That was an eye-opener for me. That taught me I gotta get better.”
The improvement really hasn’t stopped, as he’s shown time and again against elite competition. He was a member of the U17 US national team that took gold at the 2022 FIBA World Cup and was selected to join the stacked US roster for the 2024 Nike Hoop Summit. With that résumé, where can he still improve? “Before Coach Cal left on senior night, he said I need to talk more, be more vocal—it helps everybody on the floor, and it helps me.”
That shouldn’t be too difficult. Fland brings the same energy to every court he steps on, with his Bronx roots always on display.
“New York is different. When people say that, it definitely is true,” he confirm emphatically. “You gotta have some swagger to you. You can’t be stiff. When you walk in the gym, they gotta know, Oh, he’s from New York.”
Portrait by Marcus Stevens.
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