Boogie Back on Broadway

Tuesday, December 9

New York, NY

9 PM

Florida Gators

UConn

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during the Gators' game against the Florida State Seminoles on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainesville, FL / UAA Communications photo by Maddie Washburn

UF point guard Boogie Fland is averaging 15.0 points over the last three games.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

NEW YORK – His coach was a half-second away from calling a timeout. A half-second late, as it turned out.

Florida point guard Boogie Fland had dribbled to the sideline in front of his team's bench and got locked up by Duke defending counterpart Caleb Foster. The ball was knocked away, Fland fouled Foster with two seconds to go with the Gators behind by a point.

That's how it ended. A 67-66 loss at venerable Cameron Indoor Stadium that, with one more play, just as easily could have fallen UF's way. Instead, the Gators were left to process a knee-capping defeat, with Fland taking it especially hard after helping lead a comeback from 15 down by scoring nine of his 16 points in the final four minutes, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with a half-minute remaining.

How long did it take to get over it.

"Two days," Fland said. "Can't lie."

Well, it's been five days since those two days, with Fland and friends having plenty of time to flush that one and got on to the next one. Another really big one, in fact. As in Tuesday night, when the 18^th-ranked Gators (5-3) face fifth-ranked Connecticut (8-1) – in a battle of the last three NCAA champions – in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, the iconic venue not far from where Fland grew up in The Bronx.

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]

Fland, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound sophomore, can't say for sure how far MSG is from Archbishop Stepinac, where he starred and won a prestigious Catholic High School Athletic Association title during his McDonald's All-America prep career, but can get there in 35 minutes, depending on traffic. He knows the shortcuts, of course.

There will be no cutting corners on this trip, however. Not against the Huskies – and mercurial Coach Dan Hurley – who figure to be a little extra on edge after the Gators ended their two-year national-championship reign last March with a 77-75 win in second-round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament play at Raleigh, North Carolina. The MSG crowd will be overwhelmingly pro-UConn, but the current reigning champs, having already faced partisan settings against Arizona in Las Vegas and Duke at Cameron, know what's coming.

"I'm sure they feel like they owe us something," UF coach Todd Golden said of the Huskies and their faithful.

UConn can take solace that Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard won't be in the building. That senior trio did the bulk of the damage in crashing its season last spring. That day, Fland was in Providence, Rhode Island, with his Arkansas teammates on a run to the Sweet 16 of their own. Fland missed the 15 games preceding the tournament recovering from midseason surgery on his hand, but before the injury was averaging 15.6 points and 5.7 assists, including a 20-point, seven-assist and two-steal defeat of Michigan in the 2024 Jimmy V Classic.

So, this will be his second foray into MSG, but no point guard who grew up on the playgrounds of the New York City – a partial list includes Bob Cousy, Dick McGuire, Tiny Archibald, Pearl Washington, Rod Strickland, Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson, Mark Jackson, Stephon Marbury, Kemba Walker – would ever take for granted a chance to play at one of the Meccas of all sports venues.

The last true pure NYC point guard for the Gators was Erving Walker (2008-12), who came out of Brooklyn and left Florida as the program's all-time leader in assists, as well as second in career games and fifth in scoring.

Walker, though, never got a chance to play off Broadway. He'll have some 200 family and friends in the house cheering him on.

**Boogie Fland** (1) during his prep career at Archbishop Stepinac in The Bronx.

"It's very special. My first time was like no [other] experience and I expect this one to be the same," said Fland, who will lean on last year's MSG christening to brace for this one. "You have to stay in the moment. You play basketball your whole life, [so] you just got to keep going with it."

Such will be the charge for the Gators, who hope to pick up where they left off in the second half against Duke seven nights ago – easily, the team's best 20 minutes of basketball this young season – when they shot 47% in the second half, while holding the Blue Devils to 38, out-rebounded them 22-15 after the break, and outscored them 42-31.

They only thing UF didn't do was win the game. The opportunity certainly was there, with Golden kicking himself for not calling a late timeout and Fland doing the same for giving the ball away.

"Holistically, and on a macro level, I think the second half was something that he can really build on, and we as a team can, so I don't think we're focusing too much on that last play," Golden said. "It stings enough losing the game. More focusing on the positives."

**Boogie Fland** (left) had his mid-range pull-up game working at Duke last week on his way to 16 points on 7-for-16 from the floor.

Fland finished with 16 points, three steals, four turnovers and without an assist, but put the offense on his back late in the game by scoring those four baskets; two coming on nice mid-range jumpers, another on a hard drive down the lane and finished by a clutch 3 for the late lead. He was in a great rhythm.

"Boogie really stepped up when we needed him," junior wing Thomas Haugh said.

Added Fland: "Just trying to control the game."

He'll do so this time against a hungry team with twice UF's championship pedigree over the last three seasons. A huge game, yes, but only the ninth for this team. Whatever this version of the Gators eventually will be is in the process of materializing, with Fland the guy mostly running the show.

"Go back and watch the film of the new guys last year. When they started getting cooking was more kind of the end of December, before they really started getting really comfortable," Golden said. "And I think that half in that [Duke] environment says a lot about the ceiling that he can play with."

Fland has yet to come close to his and probably did some tossing and turning over how the last game ended. Now comes a bounce-back opportunity in the city that never sleeps.

His city.

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.