Rebounding yes.
Loses his man on a lot of possessions (watch him closely on every possession i’ll bet 1/2 of them he has no idea where his man off tge ball is)
Terrible at close outs
See my post. I DID re-watch a dvr of the game solely to watch Bailey's defensive positioning.
I disagree with your interpretation.
I agree that there ARE times when Bailey loses track of his man. And either his positioning or perhaps loss of focus leads to either failing to box out or not being on position to close out at the 3 point line.
But I believe most of the time his defensive positioning off the ball is a DELIBERATE part of Pikiell's defensive scheme. Especially when his defensive assignment is in the corner or wing on the opposite (or weak) side from the ball. This positioning allows him to be in position to rotate to help either in the lane or to the wing (if his man is in the corner and someone else's man is on the wing) or to the corner (if his man is on the wing and someone else's man is in the corner).
Bailey being located in the short corner, sort of (halfway between the corner or wing 3-point line and the low post... Or a little closer to the low post than the 3-point line) allows his length and quickness to cover 3 different areas: his own man if the ball swings (either to the corner or to the weak side wing), rotate to help at the post, baseline drives and/or face cuts from the ball side opposite him, or to cover a teammates man on the wing if the team mate needs to help.
That positioning does leave Bailey vulnerable missing the box out if his man cuts from the corner to crash the boards on a shot from the opposite side.
Also, Bailey does still need to improve against the off ball high screen. Some of his biggest failures to close come when the player he is covering starts at the high post or foul line extended and either cuts or curls to the 3-point line (either curling in a semi-circle cut or fade or simple cuts) at the top of the key or to the wing. Bailey can get lost in the screening scrum and then you see him either slow to close at the 3-point line or sometimes on the switch you see him frantically scramble to FIND who he us supposed to switch to (often back to a player moving to the corner).
For example, against Illinois, #3 got several 3's off, making at least 1, vs Bailey with the offensive set described in the paragraph right above. And Riley made a 3 from the same set... Before Likiell switched Williams to Riley at the 8 minutes left mark of the 2nd half. Michigan ran that set repeatedly on the 2nd half at the key moment when RU Had pulled to within 2 points, getting Wolf a huge open 3, and several Goldin layups off the ensuing screen and roll and RU unsuccessful scramble to deal with the screening.
It LOOKS like Bailey is lost more times than he actually IS lost, IMO, because of the deliberate defensive positioning. But I will certainly admit he DOES lose hus positioning discipline at times. But has gotten much better executing the defensive scheme in my opinion. Which is why I label his defense "solid". Not great, but solid. Maybe "more solid than not" or "increasingly solid" may be better labels?
