Coachable, Confident Sisley Showcasing Improvement
10/3/2025 8:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – You've gotta have a motor, if you want to thrive at major college basketball, as Trent Sisley does; if you want to make instant impact, as this 6-foot-8, 225-pound freshman standout does, and if it doesn't at first deliver a starter's minutes under head coach Darian DeVries in this new-era season, that's not the point.
The dude will play. A lot.
Credit Sisley's elite work ethic, impressive skill, and non-stop improvement more than his consensus four-start recruiting ranking accolades for that. Nothing is given, everything is earned, and Sisley is all in.
"This is where I knew I wanted to be," he says. "To not play as hard as I can every day is not what I want from myself, and it won't help the team. I bring it every day and compete as hard as I can."
Coaches and teammates verify this competitive intensity and impressive improvement, visible from the first day he arrived on campus last June.
"He's continued to get better," DeVries says. "He's coachable. I think he's becoming more confident in what he's doing and what we want him to do and intermixing that together."
Reed Bailey, a 6-foot-10 veteran forward, sees it every day in practice.
"He's already made so many strides. He's a big dude, and has gotten bigger and stronger since he's been here.
"He's super skilled. You see the way he moves with the ball. You see his intelligence about the game. He knows how to play. It's a lot of fun playing with him. I'm excited to see what happens for him throughout the season."
Sisley says his improvement comes from consistency.
"I try to give all I can every day in practice. Do little stuff like offensive rebounding.
"I have a long way to go on defense. I try to get better at that every day, and do what I can on offense to help the team."
The transition to college is challenging even for the best of players, DeVries says, from how you fit on the team to the speed and physicality of the game.
"I don't think Trent has a lot of problems with that. He's still got some of those growing pains every new college player has, but he's done a great job of continuing to work on them."
Sisley is one of three scholarship IU freshmen. DeVries hit the transfer portal hard to land college veterans, most from mid-major programs, that comprise the nation's 10th-ranked transfer portal class according to 247Sports. The result -- the Hoosiers won't have to rely on Sisley right away.
"For this group, he's not a guy that has to come out every night and get his 20 (points)," DeVries says, "but he's a guy who can.
"That's critical for him. He has a supporting cast around him so he can continue to grow and do it at a rate that he can be very comfortable with."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – You've gotta have a motor, if you want to thrive at major college basketball, as Trent Sisley does; if you want to make instant impact, as this 6-foot-8, 225-pound freshman standout does, and if it doesn't at first deliver a starter's minutes under head coach Darian DeVries in this new-era season, that's not the point.
The dude will play. A lot.
Credit Sisley's elite work ethic, impressive skill, and non-stop improvement more than his consensus four-start recruiting ranking accolades for that. Nothing is given, everything is earned, and Sisley is all in.
"This is where I knew I wanted to be," he says. "To not play as hard as I can every day is not what I want from myself, and it won't help the team. I bring it every day and compete as hard as I can."
Coaches and teammates verify this competitive intensity and impressive improvement, visible from the first day he arrived on campus last June.
"He's continued to get better," DeVries says. "He's coachable. I think he's becoming more confident in what he's doing and what we want him to do and intermixing that together."
Reed Bailey, a 6-foot-10 veteran forward, sees it every day in practice.
"He's already made so many strides. He's a big dude, and has gotten bigger and stronger since he's been here.
"He's super skilled. You see the way he moves with the ball. You see his intelligence about the game. He knows how to play. It's a lot of fun playing with him. I'm excited to see what happens for him throughout the season."
Sisley says his improvement comes from consistency.
"I try to give all I can every day in practice. Do little stuff like offensive rebounding.
"I have a long way to go on defense. I try to get better at that every day, and do what I can on offense to help the team."
The transition to college is challenging even for the best of players, DeVries says, from how you fit on the team to the speed and physicality of the game.
"I don't think Trent has a lot of problems with that. He's still got some of those growing pains every new college player has, but he's done a great job of continuing to work on them."
Sisley is one of three scholarship IU freshmen. DeVries hit the transfer portal hard to land college veterans, most from mid-major programs, that comprise the nation's 10th-ranked transfer portal class according to 247Sports. The result -- the Hoosiers won't have to rely on Sisley right away.
"For this group, he's not a guy that has to come out every night and get his 20 (points)," DeVries says, "but he's a guy who can.
"That's critical for him. He has a supporting cast around him so he can continue to grow and do it at a rate that he can be very comfortable with."
Sisley grew up in southern Indiana and thrived for three seasons at Heritage Hills High School where he set career records in scoring (1,715 points) and rebounding (751). He spent his final high school season at Montverde Academy, sharpening his skills against some of the nation's best prep players.
Watching IU basketball was a family tradition. Sisley attended games with his parents, his grandfather, his brother and cousins. A highlight was a 2016 game against Illinois when Hoosier senior point guard Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell led the Hoosiers to 103-69 victory.
"I grew up an Indiana fan my whole life," he says. "It's kind of a family affair. I love this place. Coming here means a lot."
Basketball is seemingly part of Sisley's DNA. His father, Matt, played collegiately at Southeast Missouri State. Older brother Blake played at the University of Evansville and Wright State.
As for this season, a Hoosier roster overhaul that might be the biggest in program history -- 15 new players, just two returners from last season – leaves a touch of player anonymity in its wake, although given this is Indiana basketball, fame is never far away.
Still …
"I think Trent might be our most famous person," guard Conor Enright says with a smile. He's a transfer from Drake and DePaul.
Sisley, who committed to IU last November, could have moved on when Indiana made a coaching change last spring. Athletic director Scott Dolson stayed in touch with Sisley and his family during the search. Then, less than an hour after word broke that DeVries was hired, DeVries called him.
The message -- Sisley was a perfect fit for the new coach's system. Sisley bought in then, and even more now after several months in the system.
"Coach DeVries has a unique style," Sisley says. "Everyone gets a lot of shots up. You play fast. He recruits good guys. We have a lot of older guys this year, so that's been good."
Under DeVries, the Hoosiers will fully utilize the 3-point shot, and have the shooters to make it work.
"It's a big thing for us," Sisley says, "because we have a lot of shooters, but we can't live and die by it. If shots aren't falling, we have to find ways to get stops, get layups and stuff like that."
Make a 60-foot-or-so banked shot from the FIVE GUYS restaurant balcony?
Yeah. Sisley did that.
Close down Kirkwood Avenue on a Thursday night?
Yeah. The Hoosiers did that.
Thursday night's Hoosier Hoops on Kirkwood debut brought the men's and women's basketball teams to the epicenter of IU/Bloomington nightlife and delivered the high-energy skill-competition goods to jump start what projects as a special season.
DeVries told the Kirkwood crowd that Hoosier fans make IU basketball "really special."
"We can't be more excited," he said. "We are going to bring some noise. We can't wait for Nov. 5!"
That's the season opener against Alabama A&M at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
More noise came from Friday night's Cream & Crimson scrimmage at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Sisley did his part with six points and a couple of assists.
DeVries worked different lineup combinations. Because of injuries, not every player was available.
Forward Sam Alexis had 14 points. Guard Lamar Wilkerson had 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Forward Tucker DeVries had eight points as did Bailey.
It was the second public team indication -- following three games in Puerto Rico -- of DeVries' approach to restoring the glory to a tradition-rich program that hasn't won a Big Ten championship or reached an NCAA tourney Sweet Sixteen since 2016.
"Success comes from, are we doing what we need to do every day, from a mindset, from an approach?" he says. "Everything we value, whether it's practice, on the floor, off the floor, are they doing those things? I like what they've done to this point.
"I've always been a strong believer that if you can get a group connected enough in all the little things, the discipline things, the toughness things, you can have a group that will win a lot of games. That's our goal."
Players Mentioned
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Forward
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