Sharpshooter Todd Blanchfield credits an impressive off-season stint in the QBL as a key ingredient to his red-hot start to life as an Illawarra Hawk.
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Blanchfield returned to his home town of Mackay to link up with the Meteors in April this year after being granted a release from the Sydney Kings at the end of the last season.
He went on to average 20.5 points and 10 rebounds on-route to claiming the Queensland competition’s MVP crown.
Much to the delight of the Hawks, Blanchfield has carried that form into his first NBL campaign for the club.
The 27-year-old finished with a game-high 32 points in the undermanned Hawks 104-93 triumph over the Taipans at Cairns Convention Centre on Sunday.
"I think confidence is a big thing. I took a lot from the off-season and really tried to take it to the next level,” Blanchfield said after the performance.
“Obviously the step between the QBL and NBL is a quite a big step and sometimes guys can't make that step. I didn't want to do that.
"I really worked on my game a lot and I am really trying to carry that over.
“I think it's been pretty successful.”
I really tried to take it to the next level
- Todd Blanchfield
Blanchfield added coach Rob Beveridge’s faith in him has helped him quickly settle into life at Illawarra.
The title-winning NBL coach expects the Boomers representative to play a big part for the Hawks throughout the campaign.
"Todd is an incredible player and I just don't really know if he even knows how good he is," Beveridge said.
"We want him to be our main scorer but he can do so many things. He can shoot the ball, he can go off the dribble, he play inside or post up.
"There are so many facets to his game and I think that's what he is starting to show. He is very difficult to defend."
Blanchfield’s 32-point display comes on the back of a game-high 26 points in the Hawks’ round one quadruple overtime loss to Melbourne United.
It came with both centre AJ Ogilvy (ankle) and guard Kevin White (back) both stranded on the sidelines with injuries.
"It is a lot of fun when you can come out and put out those sort of numbers but as a group we worked pretty hard this week," Blanchfield said.
"Obviously we had a few injuries and we had to take care of that but to walk away from here [with a 1-2 record] is massive for us as a group.
"Our confidence coming back home in front of our own fans next 1-2 is massive.
“We will take a lot of confidence and we really enjoy playing in front of our fans so it's massive."
The Illawarra Hawks are seventh on the ladder after two rounds.
