Scott Roth wasn't certain Jack McVeigh had it in him to be the difference in an NBL Championship Series.
With the Larry Sengstock Trophy now in his back pocket, the Tasmania JackJumpers' heart-and-soul forward can claim to have been just that.
McVeigh was named MVP of one of the toughest title deciders in league history and provided a signature moment with his long-range game-winner in game three.
But it was his consistency across the best-of-five series that made him such a threat to the vanquished Melbourne United.
"To be quite honest, I didn't know Jack McVeigh was going to come out at the level he's come out in the last few weeks," Tasmania coach Roth said after his side's 83-81 win on Sunday clinched the title.
"But he's told on himself, so we'll expect it more often. He was a huge factor in everything."
Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman tinkered with ways to blunt McVeigh throughout the series, but couldn't prevent the forward making his mark.
McVeigh averaged 17.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists across the five games.
"Credit to him, he's a high-level scorer and he did it in different ways," Vickerman said.
"We really homed in on the three-ball in some games and really limited his touches.
"For him to get one (three-point) attempt up was a really good effort for us tonight.
"We left him in single coverage pretty much all of the last two games and said we needed to live with that ... but he had a great series.
"He's always had the great confidence and now he's backing it up with consistent performances."
JackJumpers captain Clint Steindl hailed McVeigh's growing maturity on and off the court.
"We get to see it every day and everybody else gets to see it when the bright lights are on," Steindl said.
"There's a lot of focus on Jack game-wise and a lot of attention, and he just continually came up big-time by making the right plays for us throughout the course of the series.
"I've never done that, but I can only imagine how tough that is to do. He was big-time this whole season."
