St. Joseph (Ill.) boys basketball coach Gene Pingatore usually isn't in favor of having his players make college basketball commitments any earlier than they absolutely have to. For Diamond Taylor, though, there was no reason to wait.

So late Thursday night, Taylor — a 6-foot-3 junior guard from the suburban Chicago school — decided the time was right to make an oral commitment to play for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team beginning with the 2009-10 season.

"They wanted him," Pingatore said. "I'm not an advocate of early commitment, but Wisconsin's been on him and they stayed on him and did a great job recruiting him."

Taylor, who chose the Badgers over scholarship offers from Marquette, Illinois, Notre Dame, Southern Illinois, Bradley and Northern Illinois, is the second member of UW's 2009 recruiting class, one that is expected to consist of three players.

"He's an excellent shooter, goes to the basket very well, is developing a mid-range game. And I think that will end up being another weapon for him," Pingatore said of Taylor, who averaged 18.6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this season and comes from the same program that produced Iowa's Tony Freeman, Notre Dame's Jonathan Peoples, Illinois' Demetri McCamey and Ohio State's Evan Turner.

Taylor, who was not able to be reached for comment, joins 6-foot-7 forward Mike Bruesewitz of Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights, Minn., who committed last month.

"It was in his heart," Taylor's father, Kimrossi, said of his son's decision to play basketball at UW. "He came to me (Thursday) night and said, 'Dad, I'm really wanting to do this.'

"The time was right. When you feel it in your heart, you have to do it. He really had his mind made up and (Thursday) was just the time that he wanted to make the call."