And then there were four. The four bigs I call them: Brazil, Dominican Republic, Cuba and USA. The big four will battle it out for the next two nights.

Now the question that will be answered is who gets what medal. There are four medals: gold, silver, bronze and the tin. No team wants to end up with the tin. That is what makes this format so intense. This is exactly what happens in the Olympics.

Coach Terry Pettit once said that coaching the USA team is the best job two weeks out of every four years. This is a grind. The team and coaches have been here for 10 days and now it comes down to two huge matches. But this is why these players and coaches tolerate the travel, conditions and the preparation mentally and physically that is needed to be the best in the world.

Hugh's message to the team was tactically how to beat Dominican Republic and be ready to score 28 points a game. Why do we have to score 28 when the games are to 25pts? Simple: We are in a Latin America country playing a Latin team. Everything will be against the USA from the crowd to the close calls. The team will have to overcome the emotion from the Dominican Republic team. One thing I have learned here is that the USA gets everyone's best effort and we are the team they love to beat.

On a side note from yesterday's blog I mentioned we got the team fresh tortillas for the rice and beans. Today the tortillas were provided for all the teams.

Tonight some of the best teams in the world will play each other in front of a packed house with trumpets and drums. The ticket to get in costs $3. How cool would it be to see this type of event in Hawaii or Nebraska in front of a packed gym.

I can see El Paso, Texas, from my hotel window, but it feels like we are thousand of miles away.

Let the games begin!