How honing his cutter could help new Chicago Cubs reliever Ryan Brasier return to dominant 2023 form

When Ryan Brasier is feeling his best coming out of the bullpen, the right-hander can sling his fastball wherever he wants in and around the zone.

Primarily reliant on a fastball-slider combination, the Chicago Cubs’ newest reliever tends to be locked in when those two pitches are working well. His cutter, added in 2023 when he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, is a complementary pitch, one that has shown to be an effective third option for the 37-year-old, especially against left-handed hitters.

“Just adding the third pitch where they go up there and they can kind of eliminate certain stuff and certain counts and the cutter was a pitch that I would use to get back in counts,” Braiser said Wednesday. “I threw it a lot when I first got there because it was working so good.”

Braiser’s cutter wasn’t as effective last year. After the pitch had a 16.4 Whiff% and 23.5 PutAway% in 2023, his cutter produced a 3.7 Whiff% and 0.0 PutAway% in 2024 with the expected numbers against it dramatically increasing. Honing his cutter and trying to recapture the 2023 version has been a focal point of Braiser’s offseason and during the four to five bullpens he has thrown.

“Really kind of focusing on cutter and fastball right now, slider is just there off the fastball,” Braiser said. “But wanted to get my cutter back to where it was two years ago.”

A right calf strain cost Brasier 3½ months of the 2024 season. He returned in mid-August to post a 2.76 ERA in 17 appearances over the final six weeks of the regular season. Brasier pitched in eight games in the postseason, including twice in the World Series en route to winning the second title of his career (2018, Boston Red Sox).

Brasier knew the Dodgers had been shopping him before he was designated for assignment last week after they signed reliever Kirby Yates. Once Brasier cleared waivers, the Dodgers informed him he had a few trades they could work out to move him. He received a call Tuesday night that the Cubs had acquired him .

“I’m super excited to get to play in Wrigley and have it my home field,” Brasier said. “And with the additions that they made this offseason, I’m excited to get going.”

Cubs pitchers and catchers report to spring training Sunday in Mesa, Ariz., with the first full-squad workout five days later. They open their season against the Dodgers in a two-game series March 18-19 at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

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Philosophy professor Agnes Callard believes in the power of a full-blown argument

Socrates, of all the philosophers in the history of mankind, was probably the biggest pain in the ass. He believed argument itself was the core to understanding anyone, including himself. He didn’t want to convince you. He didn’t want you to agree to disagree with him. He didn’t want you to agree at all — for therein held one’s freedom. On his deathbed, with a solid conviction about what to expect from the afterlife, he urged friends to argue against the existence of an afterlife.

He lived, and died, to argue.

The man had become so annoying that an Athenian court, having decided he was damaging the morality of Grecian youth, sentenced Socrates to death by self-poisoning.

The man was exasperating.

For a brief time, though, Agnes Callard gave him a run for his money.

Somewhat intentionally.

She had spent most of her childhood not being understood and had found Socrates the key to explaining herself and the way she thought about life. So, long before becoming an associate philosophy professor at University of Chicago, before becoming among the most popular teachers on campus, as well as the subject of a 2023 New Yorker profile (partly centered around how she lived in the same home with both her second husband and her first husband), many years ago, fresh out of high school, Callard gently accosted strangers in line outside the Art Institute of Chicago. She asked them the unanswerable.

She sidled up and asked if they were interested in having a philosophical conversation, and when they replied, Uh… yeah, sure, she peppered them with questions, things that no one could reasonably answer, like What is the meaning of life? And What is art?

It didn’t go well.

For one thing, she wasn’t a philosophy major, she just wanted to understand Socrates better. She had studied ancient Greek, she took Greek history classes. “But there was something more I wanted,” she says now, at 49. “And that was to be Socrates. Not to figure him out. To inhabit him, fill his shoes.” To be possessed by the spirit of the Greek philosopher. She was taken by the way Socrates lived “on the edge of himself,” always eager to turn his beliefs and approach to life upside down after a convincing argument.

She went to the stone steps of the Art Institute, the most classically ancient-seeming space she could think of. She felt good about it. When she asked strangers to have a philosophical argument, no one turned her down. The problem was the arguing part:

“I would ask, oh, ‘What is art?’ And they would say you can’t define art. I would say ‘But you defined it well enough to want to see it here today.’ I was trying to challenge them.”

They weren’t ready to be challenged, I said.

“Yes but is anyone ever ready!” Callard said with a fervor that gives you a hint of her younger self. “The people I accosted had at least heard of philosophy and Socrates — more people have heard of Socrates and philosophy now than they did (when he was alive). It should be easy for me to do this! But no, people found me inscrutable. Was I pushing a religion on them? Was I trying to sell them something? I have a very literal-minded personality and I didn’t understand why this wasn’t working, and the more I tried to challenge them, the more they seemed almost uncomfortable and afraid of me.”

If there’s an origin story to Agnes Callard, that’s as good a place as any to start. Her superpowers as a philosopher sprung out of the frustration at getting her thoughts and herself across to people who would care less about philosophy. She began university life as an academic philosopher, writing for academics, but after she was named the philosophy department’s director of undergraduate studies, she became a public philosopher. She began thinking harder about ways that philosophy should be inserted into everyday life. She decided philosophy had to matter to students in Hyde Park who didn’t take philosophy. She started the ongoing “Night Hawks” series of late-night philosophical debates, among the most popular regular activities on campus.

She wrote for publications such as the New Yorker, New York Times and Atlantic about morals and philosophy, as well as anger and ambition and marriage. Her new book, “Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life,” is her most direct act of public philosophy yet — a self-improvement narrative centered on Socrates’ insistence that we live a more interesting life through the hard work of facing ideas we’re not comfortable with. It presents, in a way, an intellectual roadmap for four more years of a Trump presidency. For most of us, she argues, Socrates is a watered-down “sauce” poured over simplistic affirmations about staying open-minded and fearing the unexamined life (not worth living, Socrates said). His true relevance to 2025 would be that the only thing he knows is the fact of his own ignorance. He was never big into zero-sum arguments.

His famed Socratic Method, Callard writes, only works when you argue with someone “who has taken on a role distinct from yours.” Anything else tends to be performative.

Then, because Callard is nothing if not provocative, she used her employer, University of Chicago, as an example of performative commitment to freedom. She brings up the school’s much-discussed statement that free speech extends to all subjects, insisting this “principle can neither now nor at any future time be called into question.” Freedom to question, Callard replied with a smirk, apparently “extends to all subjects but one.

None of this, of course, is easy or quickly understood.

Callard gets that. She seems to regard her everyday life as an extension of the struggle to get across big ideas in an approachable way. In graduate school at the University of Chicago, a fellow student once took her aside to say the class thought of her as a kind of crazy lady that nobody understood. “So I feel like since then I have gradually pulled myself up by the bootstraps of intelligibility to make myself more coherent to people.”

The second you step into her office you wonder if she’s overcompensating.

The room resembles the set of an aggressively cheerful children’s TV show. Colors and patterns explode in every corner. The door is covered in a Warhol-like repetition of Socrates faces; the blackboard is framed with more busts of Socrates. “Refute and Be Refuted” is scrawled in large block letters on the ceiling above an alcove. There’s a tree made of yarn. Lego castles climb walls. Keith Haring’s cartoon person dances along a wall. Callard enters wearing bright pink tights and a black dress covered in unicorns that, in a different decade, might have done double duty as a black-light poster.

When I attended one of her classes, she wore a striped dress and striped leggings that looked like a lesson in friendly clashing. She was teaching Descartes. It was the second class of the semester and she wrote in a corner of the blackboard: “Nothing is certain.”

A moment later, she scribbled: “Except this claim.”

She told her students, all freshmen, she was so excited to introduce them to Descartes. She bounced on the balls of her feet as she spoke, and when she spoke, she had a slightly vowely drawl suggesting she grew up on a surfboard in Southern California; when she talks on podcasts, listeners leave comments that she doesn’t sound like a professor or philosopher. The truth is she grew up in Hungary and then Lower Manhattan.

She notes that she sounds the same to everyone, regardless of who she is talking to. She doesn’t speak in different registers. She speaks to her kids the way she speaks to her students and her coworkers. Words tumble out and stack up and need a second to be spliced apart before they get replaced with a new pile of words. Her problem, she smiles, is “reconstituting the demand to be intelligible with the desire to be enthusiastic.”

More than a decade ago, she was diagnosed with autism. However, she said she is still so much “in the early stages of trying to understand it myself, it’s hard for me to say anything (about it) that isn’t me being pulled in by the gravitational force of some cliche.” Callard thinks she probably became a good teacher because “when you are teaching you tend to be very self-conscious about the question of how you are coming across.”

She’s spent a lifetime doing that.

“Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life” by Agnes Callard, published Jan. 14. (W.W. Norton & Company)

She didn’t have many friends as a child. She read a lot of novels, “Because, what do humans do?” It was hard to feel like she was on the same page with anyone, she said. Her mother was an oncologist and her father was a lawyer, “and we left Hungary because of a lot of antisemitism and so much corruption.” They struggled in New York. She attended Orthodox Jewish schools, “which treated me and my sister as charity cases because we were the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. But we were not religious. Kids couldn’t come over since we didn’t keep kosher. My mom worried about me being indoctrinated: ‘Don’t worry how you do in religion classes — there is no God.’ The rabbi would say, ‘You are a smart girl, you need to study.’ I’d say it’s all fake, why bother?” She memorized Shel Silverstein poems because “children memorized poems in Hungary,” and when her teacher in New York asked her to write a poem, she wrote a Shel Silverstein poem. The teacher spoke to the class about plagiarism and called Callard’s mother. Her mother said they were jealous because American children are stupid. “Childhood was like that. I do the wrong thing then insist my way was just fine.”

One day in fifth grade, a popular girl sat with her at lunch and they became best friends. A year later, she asked her friend why she sat with her that day. “She told me she heard a rumor that after fifth grade, everything is reversed and the least popular kids suddenly become the most popular kids and she wanted to get in on the ground floor with me.”

Philosophy — which Callard said she initially studied via the philosophy shelf of a Barnes & Noble — presented her with a way of living, an ongoing conversation in which the challenge is being understood, maybe profoundly. To this day, with her own kids, dinner comes with a question: Should you ever lie? Would you rather fly or be invisible? Christmas dinner was served with a side of: Should you ever take revenge? Understanding, real thought, Callard said, happens best in person, socially, among people who disagree but are open to arriving at some kind of an answer.

What Socrates teaches us, she writes in “Open Socrates,” is that we only avoid ignorance by having the right kind of arguments with people who disagree — conversations in which those who are talking regard one another as equals, always pushing toward some truth.

Good luck with 2025, Socrates.

Callard has been studying how conversation works, how pauses happen, how people take turns. “Communicating without that structure is close to impossible for humans,” she said. “Yet it appears possible. Writing, for instance, is hard, it takes a long time to get good, realize what an audience might expect and so on. On social media, a bunch of people who can’t write try to communicate through writing. It’s a bunch of people walking around with eyes closed assuming when someone bumps into you, they’re evil.”

Socrates, Callard explains, believed that being understood happens when both sides of a conversation talk in good faith. “One of the things Socrates convinced me of was I don’t have opinions — I have words. I have an illusion of opinions and not until I get into conversation do I get to think about the questions.” You should not, for instance, move to Portugal, or Vermont, assuming everyone there would agree with you. Where people tend to agree is where you hear more honest conversations, revealing shades of agreement and disagreement.  It’s probably true within your family.

“In a place where everyone seems to agree,” Callard said, “that’s where the real conversations might happen.” And yet Socrates, she said, thought that every argument is resolved.

It just takes more than five minutes in front of the Art Institute.

“Even among people who never agree, there can be hope,” Callard said. “When in life are you most often surprised? Conversations are when surprises most often happen. And because we can never eliminate the possibility of surprise, that means hope.”

Or as Socrates would put it, the only thing we shouldn’t do is remain as we are.

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

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‘Clean Slate’ review: An estranged daughter reunites with her father and comedy ensues

Families are complicated, which gives TV writers plenty of fodder to draw from. But what if the results are neither high stakes nor funny, so much as warm and pleasant? Well, you take what you can get these days, when the definition of “comedy” has become so expansive as to also mean “light drama,” including Amazon’s “Clean Slate” starring Laverne Cox and George Wallace.

Cox plays Desiree, a native of Mobile, Alabama, who returns home when her glamorous life in New York falls apart. It’s been decades since she’s been back, and now she’s on her father’s doorstep looking for a soft place to land. The only catch is that she hasn’t talked to Dad (Wallace) in all this time, and he doesn’t know she’s transgender. But he quickly acclimates and they work to rebuild their relationship as Desiree creates a new life for herself.

Considering the rapid and alarming threats directed toward the trans community in the first weeks of the new presidential administration, “Clean Slate” arrives as an elegant and defiant pushback: A show built around a talented Black trans actress whose charisma is reason enough to watch.

If only the series had a little more comedic bite. Occasionally a line will land.  “It’s like Black to the future,” Desiree says of her father’s house, which has remained unchanged in the 23 years she’s been gone. When she offers him chia seed pudding for breakfast, he tells her, “Chia seeds need to make up their mind: Ya either be a pudding or a pet, but you can not be both.”

But their first fight, fueled by mutual lingering resentments, lacks depth or even much emotion. It’s too perfunctory, too muted, too nice, as if the scene were a placeholder for something rawer to be written later. Just because the show is fundamentally gentle and kind doesn’t mean it can’t take those kinds of risks.

Instead, it settles for sweet and touching. Co-created by Cox (who is from Mobile herself), Wallace and Dan Ewen, there’s another name that stands out. Norman Lear, who died in 2023, is credited as an executive producer, and if his most popular shows became famous for their willingness to tackle — and then pointedly skewer — retrograde ideas, “Clean Slate” is aiming for something much safer.

From left: Laverne Cox and Jay Wilkison star in the comedy series “Clean Slate.” (Amazon)

The show’s little corner of Mobile includes a rakish single father who works at Dad’s car wash (Jay Wilkison) and there is considerable chemistry and sexual tension between him and Desiree. He has a precociously smart preteen daughter (Norah Murphy) whom Desiree befriends. There’s also Desiree’s best friend in town, the choir director who is in the closet (D.K. Uzoukwu), and his loyal mother (Telma Hopkins) who also has a long history with Desiree’s father. Together, they form a found family of sorts and rally around each other.

I’m not sure the series benefits from cameos by Padma Lakshmi and Nene Leakes; the ensemble is good enough that it doesn’t need those kinds of stunts. The episodes tend to center around a loose theme, but they’re primarily about people just living their lives. I think that’s the right choice, and I appreciate the way “Clean Slate” tackles Desiree’s complicated feelings about wanting to return to the church where she grew up, despite its bigoted pastor. He might be the only person who doesn’t accept Desiree with open arms, and if that feels idealized, who cares? Why should her character be subjected to hate when there’s another story to tell?

“Clean Slate” — 2.5 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: Amazon

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.

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Basketball and local scores for the Southland, Aurora, Elgin, Naperville and Lake County

High school and local college results and highlights from the Southland, Aurora, Elgin, Naperville and Lake County coverage areas.

Email Daily Southtown results to southtownsports@gmail.com, Beacon-News, Courier-News and Naperville Sun results to tribwestsports@gmail.com and News-Sun results to newssunsports@gmail.com.

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

HIGH SCHOOLS

BOYS BASKETBALL

Andrew 42, Oak Forest 37

Carmel 51, Joliet Catholic 48 (OT)

Carmel (10-15, 1-6 ESCC): Tommy Hills GW 3-pointer as time expired. Evan Henderson 23 points. Evan Matz 15 points.

JCA (13-10, 2-5): Jayden Armstrong 14 points. Jack Superits 11 points. Donavyn Simmons 10 points.

Eisenhower 72, Sandburg 56

Eisenhower (9-15): Micah Calvin 19 points. Larnell Moore 19 points. Logan Tasciotti 10 points.

Sandburg (14-13): Connor Gleason 18 points.

Glenbard East 72, Bartlett 33

Kankakee 75, Thornridge 32

Lake Zurich 45, Zion-Benton 42

Larkin 76, Streamwood 71

Plano 75, Marengo 44

Shepard 69, Lombard Prep 32

Shepard (10-15): Aaron Arrambide 19 points. Zach Cosme 11 points, 6 rebounds.

Warren 68, Mundelein 40

Warren (18-8, 6-4 North Suburban): Zach Ausburn 16 points. Jack Wolf 13 points. Javerion Banks 11 points. Jarren Glover 10 points.

Mundelein (9-16, 3-7): Evan Salvador 21 points.

Waukegan 82, Libertyville 53

Waukegan (18-6, 8-2 North Suburban): Simereon Carter 21 points. Rico Love 19 points. Xavi Granville 17 points.

Libertyville (12-11, 3-7): Bryce Wegrzyn 16 points.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Antioch 59, Lakes 55

Antioch (12-12, 9-4 Northern Lake County): Heidi Rathmann 24 points. Enza Nawrocki 11 points. Scarlett Carroll 11 points.

Beecher 73, Illinois Lutheran 27

Beecher (12-15, 9-6 River Valley): Molly Vladika 12 points.

Burlington Central 60, Prairie Ridge 38

Burlington Central (9-18, 7-8 Fox Valley): Julia Scheuer 20 points. Ashley Waslo 10 points.

Grayslake Central 56, Grant 29

Grayslake Central (22-5, 12-0 Northern Lake County): Annie Wolff scored 1,000th career point.

Hampshire 39, Jacobs 37

Libertyville 45, New Trier 37

Libertyville (23-5): Lily Fisher 15 points. Elinor Lindal 13 points.

Marian Central Catholic 63, Westminster Christian 10

Nazareth 51, Carmel 32

Plano 49, Genoa-Kingston 46

Plano (23-4): School record for most wins in a season.

Wauconda 50, Round Lake 18

Wauconda (20-2, 11-1 Northern Lake County): Grace Parker 14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals. Avery Geoghan 10 points.

Waukegan 49, Highland Park 41

GIRLS GYMNASTICS

REGIONALS

GLENBROOK SOUTH

Top team: Lake Forest 142.600.

Winners

Vault: Lyla Drowne, Lake Forest, 9.350. Uneven parallel bars: Drowne, Lake Forest, 9.375. Balance beam: Asha Patel, Lake Forest, 9.400. Floor exercise: Drowne, Lake Forest, 9.350. All-around: Drowne, Lake Forest, 37.125.

OSWEGO CO-OP

Top team: Oswego co-op 143.300.

Winners

Vault: Sam Phillip, Oswego co-op, 9.400. Uneven parallel bars: Phillip, Oswego co-op, 9.100. Balance beam: Veda Haake, Oswego co-op, 9.275. Floor exercise: Phillip, Oswego co-op, 9.450. All-around: Phillip, Oswego co-op, 36.850.

LOCAL COLLEGES

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Aurora University 96, Illinois Tech 54

Aurora University (9-11, 7-6 NACC): Dwayne Jervier Jr. 19 points, 9 rebounds. Isaiah Davis 16 points, 5 rebounds.

North Central College 72, Illinois Wesleyan 64

North Central College (12-9, 5-7 CCIW): Tyler Swierczek 19 points. Terrance Moncrief 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists.

St. Ambrose (Iowa) 79, Governors State 76

Governors State (10-13, 6-9 CCAC): Vincent Davis 23 points, 9 rebounds. Javon Johnson 15 points.

St. Francis 76, Holy Cross (Indiana) 56

St. Francis (19-3, 13-2 CCAC): Aitor Anabitarte 24 points, 8 rebounds. Rahmel Davis 13 points, 4 rebounds.

Trinity Christian 92, Judson 66

Trinity Christian (7-16, 4-11 CCAC): Chris Cross 31 points, 5 rebounds.

Viterbo 85, St. Xavier 84 (2 OT)

St. Xavier (16-7, 11-4 CCAC): Jordan Jackson 21 points, 4 steals. Kevin Bishop 16 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Aurora University 96, Illinois Tech 65

Aurora University (14-5, 8-3 NACC): Krystyna Manzanarez 21 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists. Kylie Fischbach 15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals.

Governors State 72, St. Ambrose (Iowa) 51

Governors State (19-4, 13-2 CCAC): Tabetha Jones 16 points, 4 rebounds. Cencere McDaniel 14 points, 6 rebounds.

Judson 63, Trinity Christian 59

Judson (6-17, 3-12 CCAC): Brooke Heiman 23 points, 8 rebounds. Demiah Hawkins 21 points, 7 rebounds.

North Central College 62, Carthage 50

North Central College (8-13, 4-8 CCIW): Biz Daly 14 points, 9 rebounds.

St. Francis 69, Holy Cross (Indiana) 63

St. Francis (18-5, 11-4 CCAC): Laurelei Thormeyer 13 points. Abby Shepard 13 points.

St. Xavier 72, Viterbo 65

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

HIGH SCHOOLS

BOYS BASKETBALL

Ag. Science 50, Chicago Richards 38

Ag. Science (16-8): Isaiah Hall 17 points. Chris Cole 15 points.

Antioch 52, Grant 47

Antioch (11-12, 7-3 Northern Lake County): Mark Render 21 points. Teddi Wetu 11 points. Jason Lee 10 points. Marshall Gehrke 9 points.

Argo 78, Reavis 45

Argo (12-14, 2-9 SSC Red): Darron Greer Jr. 32 points.

Reavis (7-15, 1-9): Yigit Akgunlu 16 points.

Bloom 58, Rich Township 47

Bolingbrook 79, Oswego 59

Oswego (9-15, 3-10 Southwest Prairie West): Ethan Vahl 31 points. Hunter O’Neill 13 points.

Bradley-Bourbonnais 67, Sandburg 44

Sandburg (14-12, 4-9 SWSC): Connor Gleason 20 points.

Brother Rice 65, Marmion 45

Brother Rice (22-3): Marcos Gonzales 17 points; scored 1,000th career point. Jack Weigus 14 points.

Marmion (14-12): Ali Tharwani 12 points. Joey Kramer 9 points.

Christ the King 75, St. Edward 38

De La Salle 62, Aurora Central Catholic 18

DePaul Prep 61, Providence 24

Providence (8-18): Kelechi Enyia 15 points.

Evergreen Park 82, Eisenhower 65

Evergreen (10-15, 4-6 SSC Red): Camryn Dandridge 23 points. Keshaun Vaval 18 points. Lenear Bolden 17 points. Arshawn Powell 10 points.

Eisenhower (8-15, 3-7): Micah Calvin 24 points. Larnell Moore 18 points.

Geneva 52, Glenbard North 50 (OT)

Grayslake Central 56, North Chicago 36

Grayslake Central (18-7, 9-1 Northern Lake County): Chris Jaimes 18 points. Eric Brum 10 points. Aayan Siddiqui 9 points.

Hillcrest 71, Bremen 51

Homewood-Flossmoor 83, Lincoln-Way Central 67

H-F (23-2, 12-0 SWSC): Ethan Howard 31 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds. Jayden Tyler 20 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists. Darrius Hawkins 9 points, 4 steals. Brent Taylor 9 points, 4 rebounds.

Lincoln-Way Central (18-9, 7-6): Lucas Andresen 17 points. Korey Cagnolatti 16 points. Jack Rimkunas 12 points.

Jacobs 58, Cary-Grove 49

Kaneland 75, Rochelle 40

Kaneland (23-1, 7-0 Interstate Eight): Marshawn Cocroft 16 points. Jeffrey Hassan 14 points. Freddy Hassan 12 points.

Kankakee 65, Crete-Monee 50

Crete (17-10, 5-4 Southland): Jayden Preston 15 points.

Lake Park 49, St. Charles East 41

St. Charles East (13-12, 4-6 DuKane): Marco Klebosits 10 points.

Lakes 53, Round Lake 33

Lakes (7-15, 4-6 Northern Lake County): Ben Newcomb 17 points.

Lemont 73, Oak Forest 26

Lemont (19-7, 10-0 SSC Blue): Simas Dyglys 15 points. Matas Gaidukevicius 13 points.

Leo 77, St. Francis de Sales 62

Leo (16-9): Karon Shavers 23 points. Ethan Jackson 20 points. Dontae Bell 12 points. Stephen Barze 10 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals.

Lincoln-Way East 52, Stagg 39

Lincoln-Way East (16-8, 9-4 SWSC): Brenden Sanders 12 points. Will Buchanan 11 points.

Stagg: Dovydas Zuperka 19 points.

Lockport 70, Lincoln-Way West 40

Lockport (17-9, 9-4 SWSC): Collin Miller 16 points, 6 rebounds. Nedas Venckus 16 points, 4 steals. Anthony Kosi 12 points.

McHenry 64, Burlington Central 57 (OT)

Burlington Central (18-8, 9-4 Fox Valley): Jake Johnson 21 points.

Marist 75, Fenger 57

Marist (25-2): Marquis Vance 40 points. Karson Thomas 12 points.

Minooka 51, Yorkville 42

Yorkville (11-14, 4-9 Southwest Prairie West): Braydon Porter 15 points. D.J. Ingemunson 15 points.

Mount Carmel 69, Wheaton St. Francis 44

Mount Carmel (21-5): Noah Mister 18 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists. Grant Best 15 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals. Cameron Thomas 15 points, 9 rebounds.

Naperville North 51, Conant 32

Neuqua Valley 94, Yorkville Christian 64

Neuqua (16-10): David Taiwo 30 points. Cole Kelly 23 points.

Yorkville Christian (17-10): Jayden Riley 20 points.

Oak Lawn 74, Shepard 64

Oak Lawn (18-7, 9-1 SSC Red): Marc Harvey 21 points. Donte Montgomery 19 points. Jack Dempsey 13 points. Omar Saleh 12 points.

Plainfield North 69, Oswego East 42

St. Laurence 68, St. Rita 45

St. Laurence (21-5): Jacob Rice 17 points. Zerrick Johnson 13 points, 8 rebounds. Caleb Lindsey 10 points, 10 rebounds.

Seneca 71, Beecher 37

Beecher (13-11): Anthony Moran 12 points. Wences Baumgartner 11 points.

Stevenson 41, Lake Forest 38

Stevenson (17-8, 8-2 North Suburban): Rocco Pagliocca 14 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals. Aidan Bardic 13 points. Atticus Richmond 8 points, 9 rebounds.

Lake Forest (15-8, 6-4): Hudson Scroggins 13 points.

T.F. North 70, Tinley Park 53

Thornwood 54, Thornton 44

Wauconda 68, Grayslake North 38

Wauconda (8-17, 5-5 Northern Lake County): Alex Ortega 24 points. Nick Ori 15 points. Austin Carlsen 11 points, 5 rebounds. Tony Salemi 10 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals.

Grayslake North (14-12, 6-4): Uros Mitrovic 24 points.

Wheaton North 51, Batavia 48

Wheaton Warrenville South 59, St. Charles North 36

LITTLE TEN QUARTERFINALS

Indian Creek 33, Earlville 30

Indian Creek (17-8): Everett Willis 16 points.

Newark 63, LaMoille 36

Newark (14-11): Payton Willis 19 points, 10 rebounds. Dylan Long 12 points, 4 rebounds. Reggie Chapman 9 points, 7 assists.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Argo 45, Reavis 41

Argo (12-13, 3-8 SSC Red): Alizza Quinones 29 points. Harmony Perkins 11 rebounds.

Batavia 43, St. Charles North 39

Bolingbrook 65, Oswego 28

Deerfield 48, Grayslake North 33

Deerfield (7-20): Eve Engler 20 points, 9 rebounds.

Evergreen Park 65, Eisenhower 24

Harvest Christian 49, Marian Central Catholic 44

Hillcrest 62, Bremen 18

Homewood-Flossmoor 49, Lincoln-Way Central 33

Johnsburg 46, Plano 39

Plano (22-4, 9-2 Kishwaukee River): Josie Larson 11 points, 11 rebounds.

Lake Forest Academy 60, St. Viator 57

Lake Zurich 63, Zion-Benton 14

Lemont 60, Oak Forest 40

Lemont (13-11, 5-5 SSC Blue): Leah Phlam 17 points. Jess Winstrup 16 points. Clair Podrebarac 13 points.

Libertyville 44, Waukegan 36

Lockport 51, Lincoln-Way West 47 (OT)

Lockport (24-4, 13-2 SWSC): Alaina Peetz 12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists. Evelyn Ingram 10 points. Lucy Hynes 9 points, 7 rebounds. Katie Peetz 9 points, 7 rebounds.

Lincoln-Way West (19-8, 12-2): Molly Finn 17 points. Ava Tisch 10 points. Caroline Smith 9 points.

Minooka 53, Yorkville 49

Yorkville (17-9, 10-4 Southwest Prairie West): Brooke Spychalski 17 points. Madi Spychalski 15 points.

Mundelein 37, Warren 30

Mundelein (18-7, 6-7 North Suburban): Casey Vyverman 19 points.

Naperville North 46, Metea Valley 26

Oak Lawn 67, Shepard 53

Plainfield North 72, Oswego East 67

Oswego East (14-10, 9-5 Southwest Prairie West): Aubrey Lamberti 20 points. Desiree Merritt 19 points. Maggie Lewandowski 15 points.

Rich Township 46, Crete-Monee 45

St. Edward 53, Streamwood 26

St. Edward (20-7): Savannah Lynch 14 points. Jordin Sauls 10 points.

Sandburg 69, Bradley-Bourbonnais 26

Sandburg (21-7, 10-4 SWSC): Monique Nwkogu 15 points, 8 rebounds. Ellie Driscoll 15 points.

T.F. North 66, Tinley Park 14

T.F. North (18-8, 10-0 SSC Blue): Kamariyah McClinton 17 points, 7 steals. Lauryn Jackson 16 points, 5 rebounds. Natalie McGheee 14 points, 6 rebounds.

Waubonsie Valley 64, Neuqua Valley 50

Waubonsie (24-1, 8-0 DuPage Valley): Maya Cobb 17 points, 10 rebounds. Won conference title.

Neuqua (9-19, 2-6): Nalia Clifford 19 points.

Wheaton North 63, South Elgin 41

GCAC QUARTERFINALS

Providence 45, Montini 40

Providence (18-10): Molly Knight 22 points. Taylor Healy 12 points.

Loyola 72, Mother McAuley 44

St. Ignatius 76, Aurora Central Catholic 59

PUBLIC LEAGUE RED TOURNAMENT

Morgan Park 56, Curie 52

Morgan Park: Mia Scott 47 points.

GIRLS GYMNASTICS

STEVENSON REGIONAL

Local winners

Balance beam: Lexie Ede, Mundelein, 9.600. Floor exercise: Ede, Mundelein, 9.550.

LOCAL COLLEGES

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Lake County 79, McHenry County 71

Madison (Wisconsin) 89, Joliet Junior College 82 (OT)

Morton College 92, Elgin Community College 72

Prairie State 80, Moraine Valley 78

South Suburban College 83, Bryant & Stratton (Wis.) 79

South Suburban (17-7): A.J. Abrams 28 points.

Waubonsee 96, Oakton 82

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Bryant & Stratton 61, South Suburban College 59

Lake County 98, McHenry College 51

Madison (Wisconsin) 60, Joliet Junior College 52

Oakton 75, Waubonsee 64

Prairie State 68, Moraine Valley 54

SOFTBALL

Cal Poly Humboldt 10, Lewis 0

Hillsdale 3, Lewis 2

NEWS AND NOTES

Governors State’s Vincent Davis was named men’s basketball player of the week in the CCAC.

Compiled by Josh Krockey.

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Editorial: An ode to Chicago’s unappreciated suburban commuters

A suburban commuter lives and dies by the weather, and at this point in the year she may feel like she’s through the worst of the winter slog. However, a wise commuter knows it could still snow anytime from now through April. To survive this lifestyle, you have to be able to balance hope with the harsh realities of Midwestern weather.

But hope and optimism have their limits, even among the heartiest suburbanite, who likely saw the news about the Kennedy construction delay debacle and felt put upon and frustrated — but not surprised. After all, suburban commuters are just supposed to take it. Still, this one stings.

We wondered how the Illinois Department of Transportation could magically reopen the Kennedy reversible lane temporarily for the Democratic National Convention. Now we find out that this decision allegedly caused an extra 32 days’ worth of construction delays, just so we could improve traffic for out-of-town VIPs, even though there was a special, frequent train they could have taken.

Few did. Why bother when you had your own bespoke express lanes?

Come March, we get to suffer all over again, when construction begins on outbound lanes. IDOT says the project will be done by “late fall,” which apparently can go well into January .

It’s not just the roads where suburban commuters get a rough deal — they’re constantly on guard against Metra fare hikes. Fares increased last year, and now Metra is threatening fare hikes again — plus service cuts — as the agency stares down the proverbial fiscal cliff. 

So the suburban commuter faces tortuous traffic on the highways, higher prices and worse service on the trains — yet the city wants them back downtown to buy their $20 lunches and restore the Loop’s economy. Businesses want the suburban commuter back downtown to occupy vast commercial office spaces to justify the rent. And everyone wants them to boost foot traffic, creating safety in numbers and making everyone feel a little safer walking to the office. 

And you know what? Many suburban commuters want those things, too. They remember a time when working downtown was a badge of honor — yeah, it’s always been a hike, but it set them apart from their neighbors. Many of them used to live in the city and love it, only having left to raise kids near family or some other milestone reason. City dwellers may resent suburbanites’ claims that “they’re from Chicago,” but they’re really only doing it because, honestly, who’s ever heard of Rolling Meadows?

But the city often lacks warmth for the people trekking downtown. Not too long ago, the mayor of Chicago floated weaponizing taxes on suburbanites to extract more tax revenue via a Metra “city surcharge” and a “commuter tax” as a way to “make the suburbs … pay their fair share.” See above — they’re already paying a lot to get downtown. 

A hostile relationship between the city and the suburbs is no good. Suburban willingness to come to work downtown is a direct reflection on the city’s health. Is it safe? Is it clean? Is the restaurant scene thriving? If so, people will hop on the Metra and gladly make the trip. The more suburbanites, the better.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

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