The room read like a who's who of high-level basketball coaching.
To the right sat Erik Spoelstra, two-time NBA Finals champion and 15-year head coach of the Miami Heat . To the left was Jeff Van Gundy, longtime New York Knicks and Houston Rockets coach. At the front stood Golden State coach Steve Kerr, flanked by Los Angeles Lakers coach Ty Lue on his right and Gonzaga coach Mark Few.
There in their midst sat Brandon Bailey, longtime NBA assistant and newly hired Ohio State men's basketball assistant coach. They, and others, were assembled as Team USA prepared to open FIBA Men's World Cup play.
This wasn't Bailey's first time with Team USA, but the opportunity to spend three days with such a coaching staff had Bailey sharing some self-deprecating humor.
"I'm sitting there like, what the heck am I doing at this table right now?" Bailey said. "I've been fortunate to work with a lot of great people, but it stood out, 100%, the amount of people that were in that room.
"I definitely had some Impostor Syndrome, for sure."
With that, Bailey allows a little laugh. In a coaching career that has seen him work with and for the likes of Brad Stevens, Doc Rivers, Dwane Casey and others, Bailey still said he learned plenty in what was his second time with the national team program.
He first joined USA Basketball in 2021, where he worked for coach Jim Boylen for two windows of World Cup qualifying. The United States went 3-1 in those qualifying windows in November 2021 and February 2022 with rotating rosters comprised of NBA G League players, and Bailey was starting a third window of games that July when he was hired as an assistant for the Detroit Pistons .
This summer, his role primarily consisted of helping scout opponents. Bailey was physically present with the staff for a few days and continued his video work from home in Columbus, but the time spent with the team in Las Vegas was something USA men's national team director Sean Ford told him would be beneficial. He's not been on the sidelines as an in-game coach, but that didn't stop Bailey from eagerly approaching the situation with an open mind.
"I'm trying to add value in any way possible to whichever team I'm a part of," he said. "I'm a part of, even if it's in a small way, an incredible staff. I was just grateful to be part of that. I'm willing to do whatever they need me to do, no matter the hours or anything. If I can be a little help to them, that was gonna be good enough for me."
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As Bailey continues to settle into coach Chris Holtmann's coaching staff and build familiarity with the players after being hired in June and officially starting in July, the opportunity to pull double duty was something he said he didn't want to pass up.
"Coach Holtmann was very gracious and obviously agreed with an opportunity to work with USA Basketball but obviously the World Cup team as well," Bailey said. "Be a part of that, even if it's in some small capacity. To be a part of it and be around it is always beneficial."
Compared to the NBA, Bailey said FIBA's style of basketball relies heavily on working hard to generate open looks by doing things like manipulating weakside defensive coverages to account for less overall athleticism and size. It's a style that will help him in his work at the collegiate level, he said.
"Reintegrating myself into that style could help me and help the team, new ideas and different ideas for the staff and players," he said. "You're around all those great coaches and people. Even for that short amount of time, any kind of new idea is beneficial to me which will then hopefully be beneficial to Ohio State, too. I've focused a lot defensively and this has opened my eyes to different aspects of offensive basketball and how it works and what the reads are and the spacing and things like that."
At Ohio State, Bailey is charged with helping retool a defense that has statistically regressed in each of the last four seasons. The Buckeyes were 19th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, allowing 92.0 points per 100 possessions, in 2019-20. Those numbers have gotten worse in each subsequent season, topping out at 101.6 points allowed per 100 possessions last season . Per KenPom.com, that ranked 106th nationally.
There were lessons to take from the likes of Kerr and the others that Bailey said will help the Buckeyes, too.
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"Even in that short amount of time, I learned so much from them," he said. "I tried to take a lot of notes. Their interactions, how they dealt with the team, the pacing with which they implemented things in training camp, all that stuff was really, really great.
Wednesday, the United States completed group play undefeated with a 110-62 win against Jordan to advance to the next round of the tournament. At the same time, a fully healthy Ohio State roster is getting its preseason individual and team workouts underway.
"The staff has been incredible," he said of Ohio State. "I love working with all the guys. Players have been really, really fun and enjoyable to work with, really open to new ideas and things that I'm seeing. I think we're getting better incrementally over the course of the summer."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State's Brandon Bailey enjoys learning experience with Team USA
