No doubt their schedule has been favorable, with eight of their first 10 games this season at home, including tournament wins last weekend over The College of New Jersey and Susquehanna.
And no doubt their schedule now looks a bit tougher, since it includes four consecutive road games against Centennial Conference teams with better records than recent opponents.
But Franklin & Marshall's men's basketball team continues to serve notice it's a serious contender for conference honors and the automatic berth in the NCAA Division III tournament that goes with it.
"We're trying to win the conference," forward James McNally said, "and get that bid."
The 6-foot-6 sophomore certainly did his part Wednesday night at Mayser Center. Hitting 7-of-8 shots from the field on the night, he scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed a team-best 11 rebounds to help the Diplomats cruise past Swarthmore, 92-67, in a Centennial game.
The one-sided win, which saw F&M lead by as much as 25 points in the first half and 30 in the second, has the Diplomats (3-0 in the conference, 10-0 overall) alone in first place in the conference. Their win streak marks their best start since 2001-02, when they went 12-0 en route to a 24-5 finish.
"I was pleased with most things tonight," F&M coach Glenn Robinson said. "Offensively, it was as good a start as we've had. It was a tremendous start."
Paced by McNally and guard Steve Tolliver, who drained his first three 3-point attempts and finished with 17 points, the Dips went 5-for-5 from the field to open the game. F&M sprinted to a 15-3 lead and eventually pushed their advantage to 36-14 on Dan Selig's low post score.
McNally netted F&M's final 10 points of the half to make it 53-28 at halftime. The 25-point spread represented the Dips' largest lead of the game to that point, and was made possible by their shooting a sizzling 61 percent (19-for-31) from the floor.
Swarthmore (0-3, 1-8) was limited to 21 percent (8-for-39) from the field in the first half.
F&M's fast start came despite the absence of two starters — guard Anthony Brooks and forward Mike Baker. Brooks has missed the last three games as he continues to recover from an appendix operation and is day-to-day. Baker played just five minutes of the first half Wednesday after drawing two quick fouls and had two points at intermission.
He started the second half and hit 6-of-8 field goal attempts to finish with 16 points. Guard Georgio Milligan added 13 points as F&M scored more than 90 for the third time this season.
Forwards Sam Lacy and Raul Ordonez led the Garnet with 17 points apiece, and guard Danny Walker added 16.
By game's end, the Dips had shot 57 percent (34-of-60) from the field and almost 50 percent (7-of-16, 44 percent) from 3-point range. Tolliver helped lead the way in the latter department, drilling a game-high 5 threes in 7 attempts.
The Diplomat defense, meanwhile, limited Swarthmore to 30 percent shooting (21-of-69) from the floor.
Yet even in the midst of an overwhelming win, McNally and Co. were aware there's more work to be done.
"Coach (Robinson) is always harping on the little things," he said. "A missed defensive assignment that might not have mattered in a game like this will mean a lot in a two-point game."
Notes: F&M's next home game is Jan. 21 against Centennial foe Gettysburg. … Ursinus, ranked 21st in the nation in D-III and the reigning Centennial champs, fell to Johns Hopkins 73-70 Wednesday for their first conference loss this season.
E-mail: egruver@lnpnews.com