Elizabethtown College's basketball team has given coach Bob Schlosser the luxury of pickiness.
He vastly preferred Saturday's 79-51 defeat of Rutgers-Camden to the Blue Jays' previous outing, a sketchy 76-63 defeat of Arcadia.
"I didn't want to end on a sour note," Schlosser said.
What's ending is the pre-holiday portion of the Jays' schedule. It's ending 9-0 for the first time in Schlosser's 18 seasons.
Things get serious after the holiday break, when conference play begins. But it's already been a remarkable turnaround. E-town won nine games all of last season.
And the Jays are doing it with mostly the same players, and exactly the same frantic, pressing style.
So what's changed?
"Chemistry," said assistant coach Justin Edwards.
"Leadership," said assistant coach Brad Karli.
"Confidence," said senior guard Mike Schatzmann, who led E-town with 18 points Saturday.
"Togetherness," said senior forward Chad Piersol, who scored 16.
Maybe this is a story about how fragile, and how crucial, are the intangible things that hold basketball teams together.
"Really it's three things," Schlosser said.
"One, great senior leadership, guys that genuinely care about the younger guys.
"Two, our younger players are more talented. They're pushing the front-line guys every day.
"Three, my assistants have really done an exemplary job. They all have other things [in their lives], so we try to practice later.
"I've been delegating a lot more to them. When I have all four [Edwards, Karli, Barry Acker and Graham Smith] together at practice, we really get a lot accomplished."
Despite its fearsome nickname (the Scarlet Raptors), Rutgers-Camden was a bit overmatched.
The Raptors came in 2-6. They had been in E-town's tip-off tournament, so although they hadn't played, Schlosser and Co. had seen them play, in person, twice.
The Jays simply overwhelmed Camden with their relentless, 40-minute pace.
The Raptors had 28 turnovers that seemed like twice that many. As usual, the pace forced E-town into some mistakes, and allowed Rutgers-Camden some mini-runs, but the outcome was never in doubt.
"I can't really call off the dogs, because when we back off, we don't play well," Schlosser said.
"Over the course of 40 minutes it tends to balance out in our favor."
Schatzmann is probably the best basketball player in the recent history of Pequea Valley High School, although his brother Matt, now a junior averaging 20 a game for the Braves, might end up challenging that.
Before this season he's had a good-but-uneven college career, including a freshman year at Division II Kutztown.
He looks very much in his element now, though. He and Piersol look utterly at ease, and aware of where all the shots are, in Schlosser's flex half-court game.
"This program is perfect for me," Schatzmann said. "With maturity, you get to the point where you can relax and just go do it."
A lot of the Jays seem at that point. Nobody played 30 minutes Saturday, but nine played 15 minutes or more. They shot 57 percent from the field (29-of-51) and led by as many as 32.
"This year we've been together more," Piersol said. "Things just started rolling, and now we've got to keep it that way."
It continues Friday, Jan. 4, against Johns Hopkins, at a Coaches vs. Cancer tournament at York College.
Mike Gross is a Sunday News sports writer. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com.
