2025-26 IU basketball player profile: Trent Sisley

With the start of college basketball season approaching, we’ve transitioned from our look at other Big Ten programs to our player-by-player previews of the 2025-26 IU basketball roster.

Today, our player profiles continue with freshman Trent Sisley.

Previously: Andrej Acimovic

Santa Claus native Trent Sisley never wavered in his commitment to IU basketball.

Sisley, a 6-foot-8 forward who played three seasons at Heritage Hills before finishing his career at Montverde Academy, chose the Hoosiers over Purdue, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Iowa last fall.

When the Mike Woodson era ended last spring, Sisley stayed firm with the Hoosiers and quickly reaffirmed his commitment to the program shortly after Darian DeVries was hired.

“DeVries did call Trent like 20 minutes after the announcement (of his hiring),” Matt Sisley, Trent’s father, told Inside the Hall last spring. “He knew who he was. I think (Scott) Dolson had talked to him about Trent. So he was fully aware of Trent being committed.”

Following an outstanding senior season at Montverde – he averaged 10.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists on a roster full of Division I recruits – Sisley looks ready to contribute as a freshman in Bloomington.

In three games in Puerto Rico, he averaged 11.3 points, three rebounds and 1.7 assists in 22.1 minutes per game. Sisley shot 58.3 percent from the field, including 57.1 percent on 2s and 60 percent on 3s (on 10 attempts).

The year away at Montverde, which included countless hours of development work in the gym and travel around the country for games, prepared Sisley for the rigors of college basketball.

“It was a sacrifice, but the biggest benefit for me was practicing and playing against the best,” Sisley told Inside the Hall last spring. “And getting coached by the best, every day. Obviously, you are away from home, too, so you’re more focused on what you need to do and also getting ready for college. Just the prep for college is the biggest thing and the development.”

With the start of the 2025-26 regular season less than a month away, Sisley has positioned himself for rotation minutes in his first season.

In last week’s cream and crimson scrimmage, Sisley showed off a confident 3-point stroke and defended well. Going against Tucker DeVries every day in practice will only accelerate his improvement as the season moves along.

He’s also done a lot of work to improve his strength since his days at Heritage Hills, which will help him hold his own in a physical Big Ten.

In an IU frontcourt that has some depth questions, the Hoosiers need Sisley to be a reliable contributor this season. Based on his play in Puerto Rico and in IU’s two open practices, he more than capable of helping the Hoosiers win right away.

Bottom line: Sisley grew up an IU fan with a dream of wearing the cream and crimson. He’s the only scholarship player on this season’s roster from Indiana and will fully embrace what it means to be a Hoosier. He made significant improvement last season at Montverde, particularly with his perimeter shooting. He has a college-ready body, makes the little plays that contribute to winning and will quickly become a fan favorite in Assembly Hall. Like most freshmen, Sisley will have his ups and downs, but keeping him in the fold last spring was a significant win for the program.

Quotable: “Yeah, I think Trent is doing really well. For a freshman coming in, from the first week in June until now, he’s continued to get better. 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.

“That’s always a hard transition coming out of high school is, like, how do you fit into what a new team is doing, the speed, the physicality of the game. But I don’t think he has really 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 try to work on them and address them.” – DeVries on Sisley at IU’s media day in late September.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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