FanHouse CalvinBrock

On July 4, America's independence Day, "Fast" Eddie Chambers was handing Ukrainian Alexander Dimitrenko his first loss in 30 bouts before a crowd partisan to Dimitrenko in Hamburg, Germany.

It was Chambers' fifth consecutive win since a January 2008 setback against Russian Alexander Povetkin. And the symbolism is not lost on Chambers, America's best shot at a heavyweight champion.

"I hear that a ton from my fans, like, 'You're the only one who is gonna do it.' It was important for me to go over there and show my skills," said Chambers, who defeated Dimitrenko the day before the latter's 27th birthday. "Beating Dimitrenko, you know, I realize what it did for the United States and our hopes of having a world champion again."

ESPN's Erin Andrews just reported on the air that Illinois point guard Chester Frazier suffered what is being called a bruised hand in practice Wednesday. She said it is "highly doubtful" that he will play at all this weekend, but the team hopes he can play next week in the Big Dance.

Andrews also mentioned that Frazier didn't want many details released, which makes be believe this is worse than being reported. How would a bruised hand not be cleared up in a week, and why would it be a secret?

On Saturday afternoon the Purdue Boilermakers blew up in the second half of their game against Illinois to overcome a 8-point halftime deficit, and beat the Illini 74-67 at Mackey Arena. Purdue exploded for 47 points in the second half, a large number of which came thanks to the sharpshooting of Keaton Grant.

Grant scored 14 of his 22 points in the final 20 minutes, which included a big three-pointer late that put the final nail in Illinois' coffin. What got Keaton so fired up for the second half? Apparently a member of the Illini was talking some trash going into the locker rooms at halftime.

"One of the Illinois players said something that really got us going," Grant said. "It had the same effect that it had last year when the same player said something at halftime."

"It was like, 'We're being disrespected at our home court.' An away team should not come into the home team's court and disrespect us.

"We were very disrespected by what he said. He said it as we were going into our locker room. Credit him for waking us up. It was all good. We just want to thank him."

Grant wouldn't say who the player was, but by the process of elimination, I've figured it out. Grant said it was a starter, but it wasn't either Shaun Pruitt or Brian Randle. He also said the same player did it last year, so it couldn't have been freshman Demetri McCamey. So it was either Trent Meachem or Calvin Brock, and I feel pretty safe in saying that it wasn't Meachem.

If only Brock and the Illini would work as hard at hitting their free throws and not making stupid turnovers late in games as they do at talking trash. Maybe then they wouldn't be 1-5 in conference play this season.