New names don the Illinois basketball transfer portal and recruiting wish list

Boogie Fland – Kentucky Wildcats (Class of 2024)

The final player on the transfer portal and recruiting wish list is someone from the class of 2024. Illinois is eyeing so many transfer portal players, but there is a high school recruit who is now available in Boogie Fland.

Fland is a 6-foot-2, 170-pound combo guard from Archbishop Stepinac High School in New York. He is rated as a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 18 player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 2 combo guard in the country and the No. 3 player coming out of New York.

The recruitment of Fland seemed to be over. He had a final three of Indiana, Alabama, and Kentucky back in September 2023. In October, he committed to the Wildcats. In November, he signed with Kentucky.

In the past couple of weeks, everything went haywire, though. John Calipari left Kentucky to go to Arkansas. That opened the door for Fland to find a new school. He asked out of his National Letter of Intent.

Since Fland reopened his recruitment, Paul Biancardi reports that Fland is wide open as far as who is in the mix. He has already had numerous teams come after him, and Illinois is one of the programs to have reached out.

One caveat to all of this is the possibility of Illinois bringing back former assistant coach, Orlando Antigua. He was Illinois’ assistant coach from 2017 through 2021. Antigua left to take the same position at Kentucky. Now there are rumblings he might come back to Champaign. Hopefully, he can bring Fland with him.

If Fland does come to Illinois, I have him starting from day one. He would likely be slotted in the No. 2 guard spot. Can you imagine him and Kylan Boswell tearing up the Big Ten? Goosebumps.