Why freshman Trent Sisley stayed with IU basketball

Trent Sisley was ranked 80th in the 2025 recruiting classAD Scott Dolson touched base with Sisley after Woodson’s departureTrent Sisley was aware of Darian DeVries success because Sisley’s brother, Blake, faced DeVries’ Drake team

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball freshman Trent Sisley gave coach Darian DeVries an immediate win on the recruiting trail.

Sisley, the 80th ranked overall recruit in the 2025 signing class, posted on social media he was sticking with his pledge to the Hoosiers in March less than an hour after the school announced DeVries as the basketball team’s new coach.

Indiana’s coaching change would have allowed the 4-star forward to freely explore his options in the transfer portal — he signed a letter of intent in November — but ended up as the lone holdover from the Mike Woodson-era.

The Santa Claus native credited a series of conversations he had with IU athletic director Scott Dolson and a timely chat with DeVries for making that decision to stick with the Hoosiers an easy one.

“I think it’s the best decision I could have made,” Sisley told The Herald-Times after a recent practice.

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Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson keeps connection alive with Trent Sisley

Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson stepped in to fill the void with the basketball team’s coaching staff in limbo. Woodson announced he was stepping down at the end of the 2024-25 season in early February.

Dolson kept in contact with Sisley and his parents, while Woodson closed out the year and the program’s coaching search ramped up once IU was eliminated from the Big Ten tournament.

“On my recruiting (visits) coming up through high school, (Dolson) always came up to us and introduced himself,” Sisley said. “I had a pretty good relationship with him before, so it was really good to hear from him that whole time with all the uncertainty.”

It wasn’t the first time Dolson dished out an assist behind the scenes. He had similar conversations with former Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis in 2021 after Archie Miller was fired.

The All-American never hit the portal either.

“He knew I wanted to be here,” Sisley said. “I’m from here, only two hours away, this was somewhere I wanted to be, and he said there would be a lot of positives coming. I trusted him.”

Indiana basketball coach Darian DeVries put Trent Sisley on speed dial

DeVries’ actions spoke as loud as his words.

He centered their initial conversation on how Sisley’s skill set — the freshman is a versatile two-way forward capable of spacing the floor — was a perfect fit for his system. The timing of the call gave it added weight.

“He reached out super quick, 30 or 40 minutes (after) it came out online,” Sisley said. “It was very cool to have that so quick, it was great.”

DeVries also ran through his résumé on the call, but it wasn’t necessary.

Sisley knew about DeVries’ success at Drake — his older brother Blake played in the Missouri Valley Conference at Evansville in 2021-22 while DeVries was coaching the Bulldogs — and the turnaround he orchestrated at West Virginia’s last season.

“I follow college basketball pretty deeply,” Sisley said, with a smile.

The phone call laid the building blocks for the strong relationship that’s developed between the two since Sisley arrived on campus at the start of the summer.

“He said he wanted me on board,” Sisley said. “ I said I wanted to be on board that same phone call.”

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here. Get IndyStar’s IU coverage sent directly to your inbox with our IU Insider newsletter.

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