UNC Recruiting: 2024 five-star Boogie Fland goes a different direction

Earlier today, 247Sports reported that Johnuel “Boogie” Fland is reaching the end of his recruitment, and will now focus on just three schools. Unfortunately UNC didn’t make the cut, so Fland will focus on Indiana, Kentucky, and Alabama until he makes his decision.

“Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama are the schools pushing hard to get me and I’m focused on those three schools,” Fland said to 247Sports.

While this news in and of itself doesn’t seem like a big deal, this creates a potential issue for the Tar Heels. The point guards that Hubert Davis currently has on his roster are Elliot Cadeau, R.J. Davis, Seth Trimble, and Creighton Lebo. Cadeau is currently projected to go as high as seventh overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, Davis and Lebo are seniors, so in theory that would leave Trimble as the lone point guard following the 2023-24 season. Is it guaranteed that things will play out that way? Not necessarily: Davis could find a way to stay for a fifth season, or NIL money could be lucrative enough for Cadeau to stay. In this moment, however, I don’t know how likely either of those things are to happen.

While Fland was the only point guard left on UNC’s recruiting board, it is very possible that Hubert Davis will look into other point guard options. It is also very possible that the transfer portal becomes a primary tool that he uses to find a battle-tested player as well, so things are far from a doom and gloom situation after this season. Davis and his staff just have a lot of work ahead of them, and if they are looking to find someone comparable to Fland in terms of talent level, the transfer portal is likely going to be their best bet considering how few elite guards are left out there.

Now that Fland is out, the only recruit left on Davis’ 2024 recruiting board is five-star shooting guard Tre Johnson. Since UNC already has Ian Jackson, it’s hard to imagine that Johnson would have any incentive to join the program, which means that UNC doesn’t have any active prospects at the moment. It is worth noting that right now the Tar Heels have the second-best recruiting class in the country, only topped by Missouri.

Whether Hubert Davis offers more players in the 2024 class or not, things still look really good for UNC going into next season. And who knows, maybe Seth Trimble will develop into a player that can take control of the team if all of the other point guards move on from the program. The good news is that it’s a problem for another day, and right now we get to focus on whether or not this year’s team has what it takes to get back to the Final Four.