Minnesota Mr. Basketball finalist Jalen Wilson braves senior year without father who introduced him to sport

When Jalen Wilson gets ready for a Benilde-St. Margaret’s basketball game, he wraps white tape around his left wrist and writes “Silas” on the inside.

The letters are a reminder of his late father, Silas Wilson. Silas helped introduce Wilson to basketball and would hoop with his 5-year-old son on park courts near their south Minneapolis home.

After a four-year battle with colon cancer, Silas died last August. “He’s definitely one of the main reasons that I’m still playing today, and definitely one of the main reasons why I am in the position I’m in today,” Wilson said. “[He] kept me grounded, kept me working.”

Wilson, a 6-7 senior, is one of Minnesota’s best basketball players. He’s a finalist for Mr. Basketball, and in the fall he’ll play Division I college basketball at Northern Iowa.

In his final season, Wilson and his teammates are trying to accomplish what no team at BSM has done in more than a decade — reach the state tournament. The Red Knights (26-2) host Orono (21-7) in the Class 3A, Section 6 championship Thursday, with a spot at state on the line.

Leading the Red Knights to state is one more goal for Wilson to check off before he heads three hours south to Cedar Falls, and one that he knows Silas would be immeasurably proud of.

“He wouldn’t want me to be down here being all sad,” Wilson said. “He always wanted me to be strong, would teach me how to be a good man. My dad lived a great life.

”I try to just think of it in a good way,“ he added. ”All the success, you know, didn’t happen for no reason. I’m just glad that we can have that, through everything else."

Silas, who grew up in Indiana, the state of basketball-hungry Hoosiers, coached Wilson when he was young, as well as several of his now-teammates at Benilde-St. Margaret’s.

“He was a dude that wanted to see his kids do well,” Red Knights coach Damian Johnson said.

He was also a mainstay on the Red Knights' bleachers and often welcomed his son’s teammates into the Wilson home.

“Like an uncle,” senior Jaleel Donley said. “Now that he’s gone, it’s just a different feeling. We’re playing with a different purpose.”

On Senior Night in February, Wilson passed former Wisconsin Badger Jordan Taylor’s career scoring record of 2,068 points at Benilde-St. Margaret’s. It was a goal he and his parents had talked about, back when he was just 14.

“When the time actually came, it was super surreal,” Wilson said. ”It was a great moment, especially to celebrate with my mom and my teammates and my coaches. They’ve been with me for that entire process."

So have Wilson’s siblings.

His three younger siblings — Jordan, a freshman, and middle schoolers Josiah and Maliya — all play basketball. His older brother, 25-year-old Antonio, comes to all of Wilson’s games since moving home to Minnesota and stops by the house “almost every day.”

After Silas' passing, “he’s just been super, super great,” Wilson said of Antonio. “An older, wiser person to have around, especially for my younger brothers.”

Wilson had long conversations with Silas and his mom, Mary, before he started his freshman year at BSM. Several schools contacted the family wanting Wilson on their team. Jalen wanted to make an impact as a freshman — and the Red Knights needed him to.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s, which won a 2008 state title, was coming off an 8-9 pandemic-shortened season in 2020-21. When he was hired the year before, Johnson, a former Gophers basketball player, took over a 5-21 program.

“He got to go against more physical players as a freshman,” said Johnson, who described Wilson as a “three-level player” — on top of his academics, in-game mentality and, of course, on-court skillset. “I think it made him get to the point where he felt like he could do whatever he wanted on the court.”

Wilson was the only underclassmen starting alongside four seniors, averaging 12.5 points per game, good for all-conference honors.

“It’s a decision I’ve always stuck with as one of [my] and my family’s best,” Wilson said.

The Red Knights lost to Orono in both the 2024 and 2023 section championship games. Last year, the Red Knights’ hopes of advancing to the state tournament were dashed by an overtime buzzer-beater by Spartans guard Nolan Groves.

“[Silas] loves when we play [Orono],” Donley said. “He loves how we act when we play them.”

Wilson enters Thursday’s rematch averaging a team-high 21.3 points per game for the Metro West Conference champs. In their previous meeting this season, Wilson broke up a pass from Groves to seal a 76-72 victory.

Wilson is one of seven seniors looking for one last opportunity to play for a state title.

“I’ve started to realize that life is gonna get super different, super soon,” said Wilson, looking ahead to graduation. “You’ve got to just embrace the moments that you have with the people that you take for granted a little bit.”

Like family, Wilson said. It’s his mom who gets the most into Wilson’s games — “too into it, sometimes,” Wilson said with a laugh. The game when the Red Knights tested her patience most was February’s 70-69 comeback over Chaska, when BSM rallied from 22 points down with 11 minutes remaining.

That was a game the Red Knights would not have won last year, or the year before, Wilson said. They know what it feels like to lose. They’re tired of it.

“As a union, we just decided we’re not losing this game,” Wilson said. “That moment defined us as a new team. This is a team that nobody has seen yet.”