The desire to play against the best competition in basketball has always driven Damon Wilson Jr.

He has done so on the travel circuit and in high school. Now, the 6-foot-4 point verbally committed to Pittsburgh earlier this week. Wilson is the first player Panthers commit in the Class of 2015, which is fine with him among other things.

“I visited Pitt a couple of times,” the Georgia native said. “I love the atmosphere and I am really cool with a lot of the guy and where they plan on playing me.”

In his conversations with head coach Jamie Dixon, Wilson will have the opportunity to play the point and be in the open floor occasionally. Wilson, who cannot sign a National Letter of Intent until the fall of his senior season, considered taking other unofficial visits to Miami, Florida, Florida State, NC State, North Carolina, St. John’s, Georgia and Georgia Tech.

He held offer from Georgia, GT, Miami, Auburn, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee and Tennessee Tech.

“I am so happy to have the opportunity to play at the highest level,” Wilson said. “I want to play against the highest competition.”

Pittsburgh is beginning its first season in the Atlanta Coast Conference, which is projected to have the best basketball conference in the country.

That is actually one of the reasons I changed my mind about committing to them,” Wilson said. “All the competition is in the ACC. It’s the best conference.”

Wilson has two years before he can enroll at the school but has some things left to accomplish on his high school career to-do-list. The former McEachern High standout played for the prep national championship while at St. Benedict’s High last year. The team lost on a buzzer beater to Montverde Academy.

Now, at Our Savior New American School in New York, Wilson believes his team is geared to win a national title this season.

“We plan on doing that this year,” he said. “We should have a shot with this team.”