Watching Indiana’s open practice last week, you would have never guessed who the lone freshman was.
Listed at 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds, Trent Sisley doesn’t look like the typical first-year college player who needs to get bigger and stronger before he can reasonably expect to see the floor. And the pace and mental aspects of the game don’t seem to overwhelm him either.
Those are some of the first things that stood out about Sisley to first-year head coach Darian DeVries when the team starting summer workouts in early June.
“Trent’s done a great job. The first couple of weeks he was really impressive,” DeVries said. “He wasn’t one of those guys that came in and looked like a freshman.”
Also the lone Indiana native on scholarship on this year’s team, Sisley left Heritage Hills H.S. ahead of his senior year to spend his final high school season at Montverde Academy in Florida.
That prep version of a high major basketball indoctrination has helped Sisley quickly get up to speed in his early months back in Indiana.
“I think he’s learned very quickly,” said DeVries.
“I don’t know if that’s just being around a lot of older guys that he’s been able to do that, because in the summertime, everything is like it’s going in warp speed. We don’t wait much. We kind of throw a lot at them, and that way they kind of have everything and we’ll work our way backwards almost, which for Trent, your head can be spinning a little bit.
“But I think he’s done a really good job of coming in, figuring out the college game and the speed of it. He’s adjusted well, and I’m really excited about what he’s doing.”
Sisley was a consensus 4-star and top-100 nationally-ranked recruit. He left Heritage Hills as the career scoring (1,715 points) and rebounding (751) leader despite only playing three seasons for the Patriots before transferring to Montverde.
Almost all players who go through Montverde have gone on to highly productive college careers, with many going on to the NBA. The school produced recent IU stars Jalen Hood-Schifino and Malik Reneau.
While leaving home at 17 wasn’t easy, going every day at practice against elite talent and playing against a national schedule has helped Sisley be ready for this moment.
“I was playing against guys who were going to a level like this,” Sisley told TDH last week. “My teammates were going to schools like Creighton, Miami (Florida). It was just good to have the grind of basketball.”
An IU fan as a young boy growing up along the Ohio River, Sisley has come back to Indiana ready to contribute, but he’s also found himself living out a childhood dream.
“Every once in a while you walk in here by yourself, empty gym, you’re just kind of like ‘Dang this is cool, this is what I’ve dreamed of.’ So it has been a really cool experience for me so far,” Sisley said.
The ultimate dream-come-true for Sisley will be not just donning the candystripe pants, but playing an important role for the Hoosiers.
What are his expectations for year one?
“I don’t really know yet. I’m just trying to grind through practice, get better every single day and do what coach asks of me,” he said.
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