I saw Faisel Aden looking not nearly as impressive as his stats would indicate. I saw Casto miss more than a few close-range shots I thought a better player would make – and that reminded me of my impression of him from last year. Great size and good looking initial move. Ball just doesn’t go in as often as it seems it should.

So, in the end, while the Cougars absolutely have the pieces to make a solid team, they are just missing that, je ne se quoi, “killer instinct” to finish off opponents. That they wilted so badly and let Butler take over the game without a more unified fight back indicates they have some work left to be done.

Rather than rip Wazzou once again, however, it’s fair to give Butler a lot of credit for showing how they did a ton of little insignificant things to get to the national finale last March.

We’ll keep watching, Mr. Bone!