NASHVILLE—As he emerges from the shade to the sun-covered side of the floor at Charleston’s Credit One Stadium, Bangot Dak lunges for the over the head outlet pass from Berke Buyutuncel and prepares to demonstrate exactly why Vanderbilt had him at the top of its transfer portal recruiting board. 

Dak is about to do something that nobody in the country at his size may be able to. 

He catches the ball at halfcourt, rips it in front of him, dribbles it twice with his left hand, switches to his right hand and beats Virginia big man Johann Grunloh to the basket. He flips the ball off the glass, watches as it cuts through the net and moves on. It’s as if this is normal. For Dak, it is. 

“He’ll continue to surprise not only us, but also other teams, with how deep his bag is,” Vanderbilt forward Sebastian Williams-Adams told Vandy on SI. “Certain days it’s something new he brings. One day, it'll be that he’s getting past us, going past guys offensively off the dribble. Next day, you’ll see him playing out of the short roll. He’s just very versatile.” 

Dak is the tallest player in Mark Byington’s Vanderbilt tenure and has the longest wingspan of any player Byington has brought to Nashville, but in this moment he looks more like a guard. The nearly unfathomable piece, too, is that Dak looked like that in Vanderbilt’s exhibition win over Virginia nearly as much as he looked like a 6-foot-11 big man. 

He blocked two shots, grabbed eight rebounds–three of which were offensive–often looked for the point guard when Vanderbilt was set to bring the ball up the floor and unleashed his wrath on the rim in one of the highlight plays of the day. But, Dak also gave credence to the idea that he’s not to be pigeonholed into being considered merely a modern five man. 

Dak raced up the floor with the ball in hand and led the break in transition. He handled it on the perimeter. He took three attempts from 3-point range. He threw guys open on the break and racked up three total assists. 

In doing so, he provided the near entirety of the Bangot Dak experience. That experience is unlike anything Vanderbilt has had in the Byington era. 

“You can combine his length with his athleticism and it just pops off the page to you,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Rick Ray said. “Obviously he’s not Victor Wembanyama, but the fact that he can go up and catch lobs if you put it anywhere in his vicinity, he just gives you a little bit more of a margin for error.” 

“He’s moving like KD out there.”

“7 foot moving like this is krazy.” 

“Yo, what the hell is going on in college basketball this year?”

“His game fits the NBA just off the eye test. I don’t care what he averages in college this season.”

All the aforementioned comments sit below the country’s introduction to Dak, a 60-second highlight reel posted by Bleacher Report captioned “7 footers are evolving bro, Colorado’s Bangot Dak is different.”

The video has over 1 million views, 22,000 likes, 319 comments and 1,500 bookmarks. It begins with Dak dancing at the free throw line and subsequently getting to work. The video opens with Dak catching an alley oop one handed and throwing it down while gliding through the lane. It ends with him catching one and putting a defender on a poster with a two-hand slam. 

Everything in between is what makes Bangot Dak, Bangot Dak. Dak has a case to be considered college basketball’s most unique player in that he’s not only a stretch big at 6-foot-11, but has also built a brand on putting the ball on the floor and creating his own jump shots. They all come with the caveat that Dak isn’t Kevin Durant, but industry sources often lightheartedly make declarations that Dak’s style of play reminds them of Durant’s silky smooth perimeter game. 

In Dak’s viral highlight reel, he’s often ripping closeouts, putting the ball on the floor and flowing into dunks off of one foot. He’s pulling up for midrange jumpers and making them. He’s eurostepping to elude a defender in transition. If the three-game sample size of Vanderbilt’s exhibitions indicate anything, it’s that Dak isn’t changing anytime soon. 

This is who Dak is. It’s how he’s always played basketball. Dak grew up around guards, playing with guards and working out with guards. At one point, he thought he might have to be one. Dak was 5-foot-11 entering high school, 6-foot-1 as a high school freshman. He finally hit a growth spurt his sophomore year and junior and got up to 6-foot-5 before growing to 6-foot-9 and eventually 6-foot-11. 

“Growing up, no one’s really working on their big man moves or post game,” Dak said. “We grew up watching Ballislife and quick guards and the Jellyfam. That was all we were doing at the gym, just being creative.” 

Bangot Dak not handling it like he’s 6-foot-11. pic.twitter.com/1nd4iWHoUH

— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 19, 2026

The best comparison from that era to Dak’s game is former NBA big man Bol Bol, who was a 7-foot-3 ballhandling big man. Dak recalls watching high school highlight reels and condensed games of Bol, now-Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs, former Alabama guard Jahvon Quinerly, Jellyfam centerpiece Isaiah Washington, now-Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, eventual NBA forward Dwayne Bacon and an all-access documentary of Team Sizzle–an AAU team with Suggs, now-Oklahoma City forward Chet Holmgren and a number of other Division-I prospects on it. 

Dak recalls those players starting a movement that took high school basketball by storm at the time. Dak himself wasn’t quite doing that, though. He was a late bloomer that started his high school career as a point guard that made a strong handle and his quickness his bread and butter. By the time Colorado’s coaching staff saw him for the first time on the AAU circuit as a graduating senior, he had little to no college opportunities and was set to go to prep school. 

They loved his ability to run, jump and thought that he had offensive potential because of his touch. But, they knew that he would have to redshirt if he was going to come to Colorado. 

“He was like two examples of animals, a newborn fawn and a newborn giraffe,” Ray said. “There was just all of this length and he kinda didn’t have his stability yet, just wasn’t strong enough to be a good player. You could see the makings of a guy that if he had any sort of base with good strength and conditioning, that he could be a good player.” 

Even then, Colorado had a scholarship open and pushed Dak to come to Boulder and develop within its program rather than going to prep school. Dak was eventually convinced and joined the team before the 2023-24 season. In the leadup to that season, Dak proved enough to the Colorado staff for them to pull his redshirt and allow him to play 23 games. 

Dak went on to start 50 games for Colorado over three seasons and became one of its go-to guys by the end of his career in Boulder. He was such a commodity by the end of his senior year that Colorado couldn’t afford to keep him. Dak was one of the country’s most highly-coveted transfer big men.

He still remembers when nobody besides Colorado took him seriously, though. 

“I feel like growing up like just not getting the looks that I've always wanted or not getting the support from some people,” Dak said, “I always used that hunger to get in the gym and get better and it obviously paid off for me.”

BYINGTON HAD seen enough on tape to ensure that he wasn’t going to change his mind. He was adamant. He didn’t want to recruit Dak as a five. He wanted to recruit him as a four. Ray admits that even he had a bit of trepidation about whether Dak could be a four rather than a five, but Byington had a vision. 

He didn’t want to box Dak into the role that other programs believed made the most sense for him. He didn’t want him to be merely a pick-and-roll big or a back to the basket big. He wanted to see what was really in there. 

As a result, he spent all summer working to make Dak uncomfortable and putting him in positions where he could prove what he can do. 

“I think sometimes people will see somebody who is 7-foot-1 they say ‘go to the block, and go post up,’” Byington told Vandy on SI over the summer. “I want to see what he can do in these situations.” 

Byington has built a brand on landing bigs that were previously boxed into playing specific roles and platforming them to spread their wings. A year ago, he encouraged North Carolina transfer Jalen Washington to embrace what he thought was a capable perimeter skillset after spending the first three years of his career being utilized as a bruiser at North Carolina. Byington also appeared to believe that USC transfer Kijani Wright, Boston College transfer Devin McGlockton and Jaylen Carey–who followed him from James Madison–could expand their offensive portfolios when he brought them to Vanderbilt ahead of his first season. 

Dak led a publicized recruitment in which Vanderbilt, SMU, Oregon and Miami were all heavily involved, but Vanderbilt always appeared to be a strong contender. Vanderbilt knew all along what Dak could do as a result of his unicorn-like skillset and 7-foot frame, and treated him as if they believed he was one of the transfer portal’s best bigs. 

Byington often complemented Dak on his ability to get to the rim and pitched him on the freedom that he would have if he chose Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt's staff tells every recruit that they'll be allowed to do what they prove they can do well, and Dak was no exception.

Bangot Dak two-hand punches it to put Vanderbilt up 40-19 on UAB. pic.twitter.com/7EoqBjYmHw

— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 19, 2026

Dak wasn’t quite boxed in at Colorado, but Byington is challenging him–and Vanderbilt’s other two transfer bigs–to become more consistent 3-point shooters. Dak shot 25.9% from beyond the arc in 2025-26, but Byington doesn’t appear to have any reservations when Dak lets it fly from 3-point range. Dak has taken at least two shots from beyond the arc in each of Vanderbilt’s three exhibition games, although he’s only made two. 

Even without efficient 3-point shooting, Dak has been a standout for Vanderbilt in the preseason. He’s averaging 10.6 points per game with a high of 15 against UAB. That game demonstrated the full package that Dak can be. He punched the ball around the rim. He altered shots on the other end. He pulled up for off-the-bounce jumpers and made them. He was a threat from 3-point range, although he didn’t make any of the shots he attempted. He was dynamic in transition. 

That’s the Dak that Vanderbilt thinks it’s getting and is platforming him to be. 

“I feel like my decision to commit to Vandy came down to what Coach Byington has been able to do in the past with his team," Dak said. “He said he feels like if I get an improved shot, with how his offense is, that I'll be able to show my abilities to shoot the ball and get to the rim a lot more often and just do what I'm able to do that not many typical big players can do in college basketball.” 

NO MATTER what a few schools that reached out to Dak in the transfer portal said to him, he wasn’t biting. Dak only had a few schools on his list that he was actually considering, and he was sticking to that. 

Dak missed the NCAA Tournament in his last two seasons at Colorado and was on one of the Big 12’s worst teams in 2025-26 and was sick of it. He was sick of losing. As a result, he wasn’t considering any team that he thought was likely to have a losing season. Everything else was a factor, but those around Dak indicate that he made winning a non-negotiable. 

“He could’ve got more money elsewhere,” Ray said. “But, he wanted to be a part of a team that had not just a chance to make the NCAA Tournament, but advance in the NCAA Tournament.” 

When Dak watched Vanderbilt play in 2025-26 and win 27 games, he saw a team that he believed had a sustainable path to success. He watched how much freedom Byington gave his players. He took note of how aggressive Vanderbilt’s guards were on both ends. He watched their bigs and how Byington utilized them. 

More than anything, he noted that they were in the NCAA Tournament and that they were one shot away from the second weekend. He thought about what being a part of a team like that could do for him.

"I want to have a great last year of college and put myself in the position to have a good long pro career,” Dak said. “At Vanderbilt, that's something I'm gonna be able to do.”