Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to recently describe High Point of North Carolina as likely "overmatched" in their match-up with the Utes in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament in Seattle on Tuesday.

After all, the Panthers are the favorites to win the Big South Conference.

Coach Bart Lundy is 70-52 in four seasons at High Point, and has three starters (plus four of his five leading scorers) back from the team that went 22-10 last season and finished second behind Winthrop in the league. His most dangerous weapon is reigning league player of the year Arizona Reid -- is there a cooler name in college basketball? -- who averaged 21 points per game and shot 50 percent last year.

Reid is a 6-foot-5 forward who figures to give Utah's Stephen Weigh one of his toughest defensive match-ups of the season. In the words of one opposing coach, Reid is "pound for pound, the most productive player in the America." Others have invoked comparisons to Antawn Jamison and Charles Barkley.

The Panthers suffered a big loss before the start of practice, though, when would-be starting forward Jerald Minnis suffered a torn Achilles tendon that will keep him out for the season.