MMBOW #17: Arizona Reid, High Point

The really good players are the ones who can lift their teams up when it counts, who deliver in the clutch, who take it upon themselves to lift their team out of a funk. And the very funky-haired Arizona Reid of High Point is our seventeenth Mid-Majority Baller Of The Week.

Mr. Reid, who was named as Big South POY today for the second consecutive season, becomes our first two-time winner of 2007-08. We had him as our 10th honoree back in mid-January. The Panthers were doing quite well back then, claiming a 62-61 Big South season-opening home win against the defending champions from Winthrop. But a lot's happened since. High Point lost three of its next five to disappear from the race while WU and UNC Asheville fought it out for the conference lead. A return loss at Winthrop in early February began a tailspin that threatened to send the Panthers into low-seed oblivion: four losses in five games.

That's when the 6-5 senior, who's averaged 24.2 ppg and 11.1 rpg this season, took the team on his shoulders. He turned in two stellar performances last week that turned HPU's fortunes around, and helped the team rebound to claim the No. 3 seed in this week's tourney. Last Wednesday against Radford, he scored 34 points on 12-for-21 shooting, including four 3's to tie a season high, and the Panthers came away with a 77-54 win. But in the regular-season finale at the Virginia Military Institute -- a 99-88 victory -- "AZ" nearly contributed as many points as Arizona has delegates to this summer's conventions. High Point sealed the No. 3 seed thanks to a 42 point, 14 rebound effort from Mr. Reid. It was, efficiency-wise, his best performance of the year, as he shot 17-for-27 from the floor, shot 5-for-7 from the line, and played every single minute.

Thanks to Reid's huge week, the Panthers ended the season 8-6 and will host a tourney game on Tuesday against No. 6 Coastal Carolina, instead of having to pack up and bus somewhere. Congratulations, Mr. MMBOW, and good luck in the postseason.