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Cole has been a highly ranked pitcher by scouts since high school because he throws mid-90s and can get up to 99.
He still throws mid-90s.  No one is saying he's lost his stuff.
Rather, scouts say his change has improved from average to above-average, giving him two solid offspeed pitches to go with his mid-90s fastball.
In other words, the toolbox is bigger than anyone else's.  The ceiling is higher.  That's why the scouts had him as the #1 college pitcher and had him as an upper-first-round pitcher in high school.  Mid-90s, not overly wild, solid offspeed stuff = recipe for MLB success.
Now, as to the performance: 1.51 BB/9.  I know for a fact that at least 2 of his 12 walks were intentional.  The UCLA site doesn't break it down, but I was following his game against Nebraska on the radio.  A guy reached base and was bunted to third in the bottom of the 9th of a tie game, so Cole IBB'd the next two guys to set up the force.  His "real" BB/9 is more like 1.2 or even lower.
That is a huge drop in walk rate from the approx. 4 BB/9 in his prior years.  It doesn't bother me at all that he's not striking out 13 K/9 when he's become much more efficient and is breezing through 9 innings on 100 or so pitches.
In the draft you have to play the percentages.  Of all the college pitchers, Cole has the highest ceiling and the highest chance of reaching it.
I understand the argument about not wanting a college pitcher, but if it's going to be a college pitcher, I want Cole.  Doesn't mean I don't like the other guys, too.  I just think Cole is the best bet at #2.  Just my view.