For every King, which accepted six transfers onto its basketball team this season, there is a South Shore or a Chicago Vocational, which each lost six.
South Shore, a perennial city power under former coach Don Pittman, finished 1-11 in the Red-South this year (3-20 overall) to fall into the weaker Blue-South next year.
First-year coach Henry Thomas tried to be philosophical about the downfall. “If you take everybody’s money, then you can’t go to the store and buy bread,” he said.
Vocational coach Richard Cook also finds himself on the road to nowhere. Only two years ago, Cook guided the Juwan Howard-led CVS team to the 1991 city semifinals. After Howard left for Michigan, CVS finished 4-20 and fell to the bottom of the Red-South with a 1-11 record.
Six returning players transferred out of CVS after last season, including three to Julian and one, Shawn Latimer, to Carver. The loss of Latimer, Cook’s leading scorer, caused him the most anguish.
“I’d been in contact with colleges for Shawn,” Cook said. “What I think is Carver parents told him if you want to go out with a bang, come here to Carver.”
If any parents actually told Latimer that, they were correct. CVS finished sixth in the Blue-South with a 4-10 record (4-21 overall), while Pittman engineered a complete turnaround at Carver, which hasn’t won a city title since 1967 but is in contention this year.
It’s all part of the transfer railroad-out of the Blue Division, into the Red Division.
Said Calumet coach John Butler: “It’s the haves taking from the have-nots.”
