Like many in the Colorado rotation, Bangot Dak entered the season light on experience.

Players in that situation come along at different paces. Third-year guard RJ Smith, for instance, had played in only seven games in two years with the CU men’s basketball program. Yet Smith has looked the part of a strong backcourt figure since the season’s opening tip. Smith was rewarded with his first career start in CU’s 72-55 dismantling of Colorado State on Saturday.

Dak was given a similar opportunity to begin the year, starting the season’s first two games. While he didn’t exactly stumble out of the gate, Dak also fell short of seizing the opportunity. But that may be changing.

The 6-foot-11 sophomore continued a recent resurgence with the best game of his still-young career against the Rams, going 7-for-8 with a career-high 16 points — his first double-figure scoring effort in his 32nd career game.

With his field goal marks on the upswing, and his turnovers recently under control, Dak is growing more accustomed to the pace and skill of the power conference level.

“My coach always just wants me to play a little slower, play with my own pace, because there’s not a lot of people that can stay in front of me at my size,” Dak said. “Just trying to break the game down a lot and just play at my own pace. That’s really helped me this past couple weeks, I feel like. Just taking care of the ball, shot selection and just playing harder.”In those opening starts against Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado, Dak went 4-for-11 overall and 1-for-4 on 3-pointers. Through three games, he owned seven turnovers and just two assists.

All of those numbers are gradually turning around. Dak has put together three of his top four scoring games of the season over the past three games, going 13-for-21 overall (2-for-5 on 3-pointers) during that span. Although he committed three turnovers during a poor turnover night all-around against CSU (the Buffs finished with 17), that ended a run of five consecutive turnover-free games for Dak, a streak that spanned nearly 87 minutes.

Dak also began last week by recording a career-high six rebounds against Pacific, and he backed that with four more against CSU.

Like just about everyone in CU’s rotation, Dak’s next challenge will be to deliver more consistently and do so when the competition ramps up in Big 12 play. Dak had only one rebound in each of the three games at the Maui Invitational, and he has recorded all seven of his blocked shots in just two games — recording three against Cal State Fullerton and four against Pacific.

However, just one month into his new, expanded role in the rotation, Dak already is showing signs of growth.

“Becoming a good player is a process,” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “You wish it was just snap your fingers and throw them out there. But there’s no fast forward button for experience. He’s got to gain that experience by playing. Playing minutes. Making mistakes. Playing through mistakes. Doing some things well and understanding, guess what Bangot? When you roll hard to the rim, you are a lob threat. A legitimate lob threat that we haven’t had since I’ve been here. Maybe Andre (Roberson) a little bit.

“It’s a process. And Bangot is in that process. As a lot of our young guys are.”