AJC boys basketball player of the year: Holy Innocents’ Caleb Wilson

Wilson, a 6-foot-9 power forward who committed play for North Carolina, scored 33 points and had 14 rebounds, three blocked shots, three assists and two steals in his final high school game, an 84-45 victory. It was Holy Innocents’ first state title.

For the season, Wilson averaged 21.6 points, 11.1 rebounds, five assists and 3.5 blocks while averaging just 25 minutes, usually getting some rest in his team’s 22 victories of 20 points or more.

Matta called Wilson a complete player, one who can play or defend any position from point guard to post player.

“He shoots the midrange jump shot, he shoots the 3-point jump shot, and if you guard him to close, he blows past for the slam dunk,” Matta said. “Defensively, he can guard (all five positions) and will block anything you try to take to the basket. He can rebound with a full-court outlet pass or with a two-bounce full-court one-hand bounce pass, or he can rebound (and go) end-to-end slam dunk.”

Holy Innocents’, a Class 2A school, finished 27-4 and defeated Class 5A champion Tri-Cities and Class 6A runner-up Newton in the regular season. Two of the Golden Bears’ losses were to out-of-state teams, the others against Grayson of Class 6A and Pace Academy of Class 4A, bigger schools that spent most of the season ranked No. 1.

Against Grayson in a two-point loss, Wilson had 28 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots. Grayson has four Division I starters, all of whom made the AJC’s 6A all-state team.

“It’s not often that someone as talented and physically gifted as Caleb plays as hard as he does,” Grayson coach Geoffrey Pierce said. “He never took a play off on offense or defense in our game against Holy Innocents’ nor in all of the film I watched on him heading into our game. His motor and relentlessness on the court.”

Against Pace Academy, in an overtime loss, Wilson had 24 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“He controls the game on both ends of the floor and makes his presence felt,” Pace coach Sharman White said. “He reminds me a lot of Anthony Davis (of the Dallas Mavericks) with his ability to be a force offensively and defensively. Great kid, great player.”

At No. 6 on the 247Sports Composite senior rankings, Wilson is the 11th consensus top-10 national prospect from Georgia since 2015. Eight have become top-eight NBA draft picks. Last year’s AJC player of the year, Rutgers freshman Ace Bailey from McEachern, is projected to be the ninth this year.

Holy Innocents’ coach Mario Mays has seen all 11. He coached the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown when Mays was a Wheeler assistant in 2015. Mays said Wilson’s package of size and playmaking skills was as good as any of those players had.

“I think the thing that separates Caleb from all these guys to come out the last 10 years, even Anthony Edwards and Collin Sexton, is that at 6-10, he makes plays as well as anybody I’ve seen,” Mays said. “He could rebound it and bring it up the floor and make a play for somebody else. I remember he once got a rebound, took one dribble and threw a pass on a dime to a kid streak to the rim. The kid never stopped his stride. I saw him do that as a freshman. He’s done that more than once. You just don’t see high school guys make that play.”