Bangot Dak is growing up before the eyes of Buffs fans that haven’t had much else to cheer about this season.
Yet the most encouraging part of Dak’s late-season surge for the Colorado men’s basketball team might not just be the raw numbers, as impressive as some of them have been. What’s been even more impressive is how Dak has gotten the job done in recent weeks against some of the top programs in the Big 12 Conference.
That trend continued on Monday night. Dak electrified a sold out CU Events Center with several emphatic dunks, finishing with a team-high 16 points as the Buffaloes’ upset bid fell short in a 71-64 defeat against Kansas.
“I think it just means I can play out there, with people like that, against a team like that,” Dak said. “I think it just means just going out there and competing, you can prove what you can do out there. You can play out there. It’s just what I try to go do.”
Dak’s 16-point, five-rebound game backed up the 11-point, three-rebound effort he turned in at Kansas two weeks ago. Last week, Dak went 8-for-14 with a career-high 20 points during a loss at No. 8 Iowa State, adding four rebounds.
Granted, the inconsistency factor often cited by head coach Tad Boyle has been on display as well. In between last week’s big game at Iowa State and Monday’s effort against KU, Dak went 1-for-5 with six points in a victory against Baylor, while also making a couple late mistakes that could have cost the Buffs a win. On the season, Dak still has more turnovers (41) than assists (31), a discrepancy that has remained similar in Big 12 play (21 assists, 29 turnovers) even as the rest of his numbers have steadily improved.
Still, the 6-foot-11 Dak is making strides at both ends of the floor. Against KU, he recorded his 40th blocked shot of the season, becoming the 24th player in program history to reach that mark. If Dak can average one blocked shot in the minimum of four games remaining in the season, he will tie Tyler Bey at No. 16 among CU’s season blocked shot leaders.
“What makes Bangot, to me, so intriguing to me as a player is the fact I would think he’s going to be able to guard five positions before he leaves here,” Boyle said. “But he’s not there yet. So he’s got to keep learning and improving, and I believe he will.”
Following Monday’s loss, the Buffs (11-17, 2-15 Big 12) will go through their longest between-game break of the Big 12 schedule before visiting Kansas State on Sunday (2 p.m. MT, ESPN+). CU was off on Tuesday, and Boyle said after the loss against KU he challenged his team to end the 0-8 mark it owns in true road games.
“We’ve got to get better, and we’ve got a very, very short period of time,” Boyle said. “Ideally, I’d love to give them two days off but I haven’t made that decision yet. But I do know, whatever we do we have to make sure on Sunday, in Manhattan, Kansas, we are emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually ready to go and trying to get a road win that we’ve not been able to get this year. We’ve got two opportunities, and the first one’s Sunday in Manhattan.”