This won’t be a season remembered fondly in the lore of Colorado men’s basketball.

Yet a bright spot the Buffaloes can bank on as the season hits its final stages has been the promising improvement on display from freshman Sebastian Rancik and sophomore Bangot Dak.

Rancik enjoyed another solid game on Saturday, as the Buffs ended a 13-game losing streak — the second-longest in program history — with a 76-63 win against Central Florida. After putting together a stellar breakout game earlier in the week at Kansas, Rancik and the Buffs will look to continue the momentum during another tough road challenge on Tuesday at No. 10 Iowa State (6 p.m. MT, ESPN+).

“Sebastian, we knew he was going to be a great player when we recruited him,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “He’s going to be a great player. He’s a freshman and still making mistakes. But his mistakes are not made because he’s afraid or scared or doesn’t believe in himself. He believes in himself, and I believe in him.

“He’s finally figured out that, ‘When I put some pressure on the rim and get to the free throw line, I can be effective.’ I thought the first part of his freshman year he was just so jump-shot reliant. And he’s a good jump shooter. He’s one of our better shooters in practice for sure. To me, he’s going to be a future NBA player, in my mind. I believed that when we recruited him. Now that I’ve coached him for three-quarters of a season, I still believe that. It’s going to take some time. It’s going to take some development. A big offseason for him. He’s not afraid of the moment, I can tell you that.”

Rancik and Dak have given the Buffs (10-15, 1-13 Big 12) a couple slivers of hope for the future.

Rancik backed his 19-point, nine-rebound performance last week at Kansas by recording 10 points and seven rebounds in the victory against UCF. It marked the first back-to-back double-digit scoring games of Rancik’s career.

The UCF game was Rancik’s sixth consecutive start, and while the scoring marks have been encouraging, Boyle has been more pleased by Rancik’s improvement on the glass. His 16 total rebounds in the past two games includes four offensive rebounds (two in each game) after recording just four offensive rebounds over his first 12 Big 12 games.

Rancik’s consecutive double-digit scoring games have coincided with a 1-for-7 mark on 3-pointers, a testament to Rancik’s ability to get to the rim and draw fouls.

“There’s no fear in Sebi. That’s one of the things that makes him so good even as a freshman; he doesn’t play afraid,” Boyle said. “He believes in himself. He makes mistakes, just like everybody. The challenge with him is that he learns from those mistakes and doesn’t make the same ones today that he made yesterday. He’s improved a lot as the season’s gone on. Sebi just needs to keep getting better and use every opportunity, whether it’s in practice or the games, to improve.”

Dak, meanwhile, recorded two blocked shots against UCF, giving him multiple blocks in six consecutive games. Dak, who has at least one blocked shot in 10 consecutive games, has cracked the top 30 among CU’s season blocked shots leaders, tying Shaun Vandiver’s 1990-91 total at No. 26 with at least seven games remaining. At his current pace, Dak has a chance to reach the top 15 among CU’s season blocked shot leaders, which would be quite a feat for a player who had just three blocked shots through the season’s first seven games.