Star Arkansas freshman guard Boogie Fland has been medically cleared to resume basketball activities and is set to begin practicing with the team immediately, the program announced Saturday. Fland injured his hand against Florida on Jan. 11 and played two games before undergoing surgery to repair an injury to his Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) on his right thumb.
Arkansas has gone 9-6 since his absence and played its way from an 11-7 overall record and 0-5 start in SEC play into the NCAA Tournament picture. Jerry Palm’s latest Bracketology entering Saturday has the Razorbacks as a projected 10-seed.
With Fland, Arkansas stumbled to a slow start in SEC play despite his instant impact as an 18-year-old freshman. The team’s adjusted offensive efficiency ranked 124th in the country and its defense was 32nd. Since then, it ranks 72nd and 17th, with the Razorbacks trending up thanks to five wins in its final seven games.
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The addition of a player of Fland’s ilk likely won’t hurt Arkansas, though, particularly for a team that is thin at guard with Adou Thiero — who has missed the last six games — nursing an injury.
Fland averaged 15.1 points, 5.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game in 18 appearances. He leads all major conference players among freshmen in assists per game and is one of only eight players regardless to average at least 15.0 points and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 35% from 3-point range or better this season.
