With all due respect, in all the various highlights clips of this Summer's workouts and scrimmages, Bailey almost always got to the place on the court that he wanted, whenever he wanted, regardless who was covering him. There were a couple of quotes in various articles that mentioned Derkack stating he thought he did okay keeping in front of Bailey a few times, but Bailey was able to shoot over him and MAKE the tough, closely guarded shots.There’s clips of him him playing good D. In other videos he was guarding Ace well.
My point is, I have seen no indication that anyone in these practices has been able to defend Bailey, including Derkack.
The only defensive highlights I have seen were the one on one drills in one clip. Bailey pretty much did what he wanted against the defender. BUT ... Jer. Davis was great defending Williams - defensively dominated Williams in those full court one on one drills.
Look, I hope Derkack will turn into a great defender in RU's system: He is long, and athletic, and WILLING, and was the defensive player of the year as just a sophomore in his conference. But he will have to adjust to be both a man to man defender, and to understand how to properly help on defense in a man to man, which is very different from help defense in a zone.
Perspective: Spencer was only an okay man to man on-ball defender, but was outstanding in help defense. Mulcahy was also outstanding in help defense - and better than average in on-ball defense (helped by being 6'7" with long arms). McConnell was simply great in every aspect of defense. And I think Davis is currently RU's best on-ball defender, not even close. Pikiell has compared Dortch to McConnell (at least in potential), for whatever that is worth.