Butler notes: Rene Castro shows what he can do

Lost amid Saturday's win and the impending showdown with Villanova, Rene Castro put together his finest game in a Butler uniform vs. NJIT.

The freshman, who has struggled at times in his first college season, played with a level of confidence and aggressiveness on Saturday I hadn't seen in him to this point.

He was scoring. He was creating. He was running the offense and dictating the temp and breaking the press.

"If you been there every day at practice the last three weeks, Rene has been focused in," said Butler head coach Brandon Miller. "He's a detail-oriented kid in practice and its carried over and his play has shown that the last two games."

MORE: With non-conference slate complete, Butler heads into Big East play to find out what it's made of

Castro finished with 10 points Saturday in 19 minutes off the bench.

"He did what he needed to do," Miller added. "He's given us good minutes in back-to-back games, and I think it's a reflection on how he's practiced."

Castro's elevated performance calls into question his shot at the back-up point guard role. With Alex Barlow firmly entrenched as the starter, Castro's play over the last few games makes a case that he should be the No. 2 point guard over Jackson Aldridge.

Aldridge, who showed flashes of potential early in the season, has scored just five points in Butler's last three games combined. He played just four minutes Saturday.

Engles praises Butler

NJIT coach Jim Engles didn't hide his affection for the Butler program following his team's 66-48 loss Saturday. He called the Bulldogs "basically a Top-25 team" and deemed them "the worst team to play in the country."

He meant it as a compliment.

"I just told our team, 'I want us to be Butler,'" Engles said. "They don't make any mistakes, they're impossible to score against. They're a team you really can't prepare for. Their style is very slow and methodical.

"I'm going to show our team -- I have already -- game film (of Butler). We're going to watch Butler play defense just so we can learn from it."

Of their impeding Big East schedule, Engles, whose team played Seton Hall earlier this year, believes the Bulldogs will do just fine.

"They're going to match up pretty well," he said. "I think everybody should model themselves after the way they play. They're going to be a pain in the neck for everybody. I just love how they play."

Miller on Villanova

Butler coach Brandon Miller stressed the importance of not outweighing Tuesday's game with Villanova.

"You use the game for what it is," he said. "You don't ever take one game and say, 'There's the measuring stick for how we're going to play the next 17 games.' You look at the game, and you're going to play a very good basketball team, a team that's national ranked, a team that's very skilled. You take it for what it is. You don't blow it up any more than it's one game and you're going to play a very good team."

Later, Miller was asked about what he learned about his team -- and himself as a head coach --over the course of their first 12 games.

"I do think, just like a player gets better from the start to the end, I'm a better coach now 12 games in than I was at the start of the season. Hopefully at the end of the year I'll say the exact same thing. I like where our team's at, and as long as our team's in the right place that's good with me."

Mr. Rebound

Kameron Woods continues to rebound a torrid pace. The slender junior forward grabbed 12 more Saturday, giving him 117 through 12 games this season. For perspective, as a sophomore last season, he had 176 all year.

Woods leads all Big East players in that category.

"I love rebounding," he said with a big smile after the game. "It's just fun, it's just effort."

Woods averaged 9.5 boards a game through the non-conference schedule. Can he keep that up as Butler begins to face the bigger, stronger frontlines in the Big East?

He believes so.

"It's one of the things I consider a strength of mine," he said. "And you want to show those things off when you're playing against what's perceived as better competition. I'm excited to get in there."