The Pella High boys’ basketball team may be the most “quiet” 8 – 2 team in Class 3A this season. What’s not quiet is the squeaking and clomping of the sneakers as the Little Dutch run up and down the court. They have guards that can shoot the ball well, and several players that were on a state championship track and field team last spring. As seen on Tuesday night in their win over Norwalk and really all season long, Pella is not afraid of having an offensive possession last less than ten seconds. Will Coach Mark Core think about slowing things down in the future?
“There is absolutely no chance in the world that we’re going to tell our guys to slow down,” Core emphatically said. “We actually do occasionally in practice play with a seven second shot clock. There is a difference between playing up-tempo and rushing. It’s not to say we’re trying to force shots, we’re trying to force tempo.”
Core adds that there will be mistakes made with a faster tempo both mentally and fundamentally, but he feels his team is doing a good job of limiting those errors. Pella is 8 – 2 and hosts Newton tomorrow night.