The 5-star guard in the 2024 class committed to Kentucky, choosing the Wildcats over Indiana and Alabama.

BLOOMINGTON – Five days after Indiana’s first big win in recruiting the 2024 class, the Hoosiers absorbed their first serious blow.

Boogie Fland, a five-star point/combo guard from New York, picked Kentucky over IU when he announced his commitment Friday afternoon. His decision, announced via a video posted to social media, takes one of Mike Woodson’s two known remaining targets off the board just weeks before the November signing window.

For Woodson and his staff, Friday’s news is not necessarily chastening. The Hoosiers swung a heavy bat by design in 2024, and in Liam McNeeley they’ve already added one of the highest-ranked commitments in program history.

INSIDER: Why Liam McNeeley’s blue-chip commitment for Mike Woodson is different, what that means.

But Fland’s decision — which remained a mystery until the final hours of his recruitment — does serve as a reminder that swinging that heavier bat sometimes means missing bigger as well. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Hoosiers shouldn’t try, though.

Where does Indiana recruiting attention go from here?

In the near term, all eyes turn toward Derik Queen, McNeeley’s Montverde Academy teammate. Queen, one of the highest-rated forwards in his class, will take an official visit to Maryland this weekend.

The Maryland official has always felt pivotal for Queen. It’s expected to be the last he takes before making a decision, and Queen has for some time been strongly linked to his in-state program. Queen is originally from Baltimore.

That said, IU has put in hard yards with Queen, who is close with McNeeley and has had the Indiana commit in his ear at least since Sunday about the possibility of playing together in college. It’s not clear precisely when Queen plans to announce his commitment, but consensus right now suggests he does plan to sign in November.

Replacing Fland positionally is a different story.

Indiana got serious with a fistful of top-50 lead guards in this class — Fland, Dylan Harper, Jaeden Mustaf, Curtis Givens and others. Harper technically still lists IU in his final group, but he’s widely considered a lean toward either Duke or Rutgers, where his brother Ron played college basketball. Mustaf committed to Georgia Tech weeks ago, while Givens, who visited with Montverde teammates McNeeley and Queen last month, recently committed to LSU.

There are other guards in 2024 still uncommitted, including some the Hoosiers have recruited in the past. But it’s been clear for some time Woodson and co. narrowed the scope of their efforts primarily down to Fland at that position, and missing on him deals a major blow to their plans.

Given the current state of play and this staff’s past history, it seems likelier IU will wait until spring, and try to fill its playmaking need via the transfer portal. Gabe Cupps gives Woodson point guard depth and, by then, experience to work forward from. And Indiana has proven adept in the transfer market, pulling in impact players like Xavier Johnson, Miller Kopp, Kel’el Ware and others.

It won’t necessarily have been the ideal outcome. But for a program with a good recent track record of transfers, robust NIL resources and playing time to offer, missing on Fland doesn’t hurt the way it used to.

Will Mike Woodson regret his approach to guard recruiting in 2024?

He shouldn’t.

Not necessarily because Indiana didn’t need Fland. He’s a talented player who’d have made an immediate impact in Bloomington. But because Woodson’s recruiting philosophy — force your way to the table with top recruits and don’t take no for an answer — is healthy long term.

For too long, IU shied away from recruiting players it feared were unrealistic targets. When the Hoosiers did wade into that pool, it was often with some hesitation, and not much success.

That was particularly true for players without natural ties to Indiana. Of the players 247Sports considers IU’s top 10 all-time recruits, only two — Noah Vonleh and D.J. White — predate Woodson and joined the Hoosiers from out of state.

Tom Crean had some success outside his own borders, particularly going east for Vonleh and Thomas Bryant. But even if we expand that list to 15, of the eight players in that group not from Indiana, Woodson recruited five of them. All five are among the top 10.

One note on that 247 list: For some reason, it doesn’t include Eric Gordon, who we could comfortably slot into that top five, probably top three. The larger point remains, but Gordon shouldn’t go unmentioned.

Indiana should welcome this challenge. You can’t simply dictate your involvement in every recruitment, but as Woodson is fond of saying, the worst a player can tell you is no.

Jalen Hood-Schifino didn’t. He’s in the NBA now. Mackenzie Mgbako and McNeeley both picked the Hoosiers over Kansas, reinforcing the truism that every school recruiting at the top of the pile is going to absorb some high-profile misses.

These are the recruitments the Hoosiers should be taking to the wire. These are, to use Woodson’s words, the tables Indiana should sit at. Just because someone else walked away the winner this time should not dampen ambitions going forward.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.