The Bench Units Podcast

This week we ponder an existential question: why do we even play the games?Spain's Final Four is locked in, with the same semifinal matchups as last year.Meanwhile, two longtime stalwarts of the league are each halfway to the French Finals.If it sounds familiar, that's because there are only two certainties in wheelchair basketball: the same teams being there at the end, and us being there to talk about it (sometimes).Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

In Italy and Germany, we have our champions!In Spain and France, our final four is set! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Death, taxes, and Albacete winning the Champions Cup.We're pleased to be joined by a long-time friend of the show, as Ben Fox stops by to discuss the most recent (and maybe unlikeliest) continental cup win of his Amiab tenure.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

54 games, 24 teams, 3 levels of competition.We tear our eyes away from game footage long enough to digest the key takeaways from probably the single most important big-picture-painting weekend in European basketball.We do our best to square the biggest risers, fallers, surprises and lessons learned from an intense 3-day blur.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

The season's annual spring clean of the continental standings is here.We work our way up from a top-heavy EuroCup 3, through an incredibly condensed EuroCup 2, to the impending massacre that is EuroCup 1.We also voice our grievances with the NBA App and give our picks for the new Pope.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

I Germany, Turkiye and Italy, we get five teams go up 1-0 in their respective playoff series and five opponents looking for a chance to even things up this coming weekend.In Spain, we get a step closer to clarity around which team is going to make the final four.We also talk about what it would be like if we took over an NBA team as the Coach & General Manager.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This week:Italy Final Four is set!German Pokal Champions crowned!Turkish Finals matchup decided!Spanish 4th place is a Royal Rumble!France is heating up!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

A statement win punctuates the end of the German regular season, as the standings fall into their final state.One team punches their ticket to the Turkish Superleague Finals, while we go to overtime to force a deciding game on the other side of the bracket.The mother of all shooting-variance upsets puts the top 3 spots in the Italian League standings well and truly up for grabs.The two teams at the top of the Spanish standings go head to head again, while two other results keep the battle for the 4th spot in complete chaos.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Today's core question:Why does nothing that happens at EuroCup have any bearing on the immediate results once all those same teams get back to their domestic competitions?We tour this question around Spain, Germany, Italy and Turkiye!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Well, that was eventful.In an absolute sizzler of a weekend, we saw the final fields set for all four levels of the EuroCup Finals.There we too many moments to even begin to list here, so saddle up and listen!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

In the last week of action before teams head to their respective EuroCup rounds, we try and use the results to predict some almost-totally-unrelated outcomes in a different competition.Turkish playoffs, Italian standings, German statement games, and hosts' picks for games to watch in EuroCup.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

We've got some mid-season champions!In Spain, Ilunion reclaimed the Copa del Rey throne after several years. The field was as strong as it's ever been during their march to the Gold, as Albacete and Murcia took Silver and Bronze.In Italy, Porto Torres continued their stunning season by claiming the first Coppa Italia in the club's history, perhaps cementing themselves as the best team in the country in the process.Elsewhere, we saw the first weekend of the Turkish league playoffs highlighted by a vintage superstar performance, and a couple of surprising scorelines across Germany and France.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

As domestic leagues resume, we deploy the age-old rest vs rust battle in the aftermath of EuroCup.Spain saw a pair of one possession wins further middle the middle of the pack, and a reminder of who resides in the top tier until proved otherwise.Germany saw a clear case of weekend-off benefits vs EuroCup hangover, and a bid for a second straight upset of a top-4 team.Italy saw yet another scrap of an Adriatic derby decided by a single point, as well as a resounding revenge game as an early-season score was settled.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Well, that was eventful.With 3 qualifying groups for Champions Cup and 2 more for EuroCup 1 having taken place, concurrently, across 2 days, we have a lot to go through.We break down all 5 group stages and look ahead to how the next rounds have begun to take shape!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Tough week to be favoured.Bilbao take down AlbaceteMideba hang 96 on Gran CanariaVigo take down red-hot MalagaKöln with the first win over Lahn-Dill in the club's historyEuroCup opening weekend has a lot to live up to!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

No, you disappeared for over a month during the season.We get back into the swing by looking at some recent bodies of work and teams that have been noticeably trending up or down lately.We talk Hyeres French Cup victory, Malaga crashing the party, a Lahn-Dill statement, Porto Torres being the ultimate wildcard, Reggio Calabria discovering new dimensions, and Turkish titans.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

After a couple of weeks off for impersonal reasons, we're back to show that we've learned nothing.We start off by breaking down Ilunion's repeat effort in winning Spain's not-quite-yet-all-that-prestigious SuperCopa tournament, as they took down Bilbao & Albacete in dramatic fashion.Next up, we quick-hit a handful of topics from elsewhere in Europe, including:* Thuringia's 60-59 win over Lahn-Dill* Hannover's narrow escape against Trier* Bayreuth claiming their first win of the season after an insane OT period* Giulianova's comical point differential* The confirmed 4-team Copa Italia field* A Gurbulak vs Sayari shootout, feat. Turkish club beef* A look at the French league, now that the top 4 teams have started to tangleAll this, plus shallow analysis of typical treatment of referees in each country, available wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This week, we ditch our crush for the team that beat them. We also see a team be successfully pressed after three previous teams had failed.We also head to the Turkiye for the first time this season, for a game so riveting that we completely forgot to get James' hairline and Mark's teeth seen to while we were there.Last but not least, we see a lopsided outcome in a game between the last two undefeated teams in Spain, and another team look defeated in several senses.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This week:In Spain, we saw the rare game that was so one-sided that we felt compelled to talk about it.In Germany, two double-digit differences went some way towards clarifying the tiers within the league.In Italy, a rock-fight in the Adriatic Derby was balanced out by a combined 170 points being dropped in a matchup that is a serious contender for the title of The Bench Units Derby.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This weekend we saw an all-time hot-shooting performance as Murcia handled Bilbao, a gritty scrap as Reggio Calabria completed the comeback win over Giulianova and the ultra-rare underdog blow-out as Porto Torres dismantled Cantù.It all begs the question; what do you do when your opponent can't seem to miss?Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This week:Wheelchair basketball statues, appropriate trophy transport, one-sided write-ups, Wiesbaden running Thuringia close, EuroCup qualifying groups, James's various misfortunes on Italian soil, Futurama quotes, and more!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Sometimes you can circle the games that will deliver on their promise. Then sometimes you get a couple more great games thrown in unexpectedly.Never ones to complain about more content-worthy basketball, we break down 4 games from the past weekend. We dive into our first Italian game of the season (Reggio Calabria vs Sassari), catch an offensive showcase (Münsterland vs Trier) before we revisit everyone's second-favourite German rivalry (Hannover vs Wiesbaden), and wrap up with a back-and-forth battle Spanish battle (Albacete vs Gran Canaria).That taken care of, we sift through many deserving candidates to give our the first Bench Units Belt of the season!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Ah, basketball games. They take over our weekends and then we spend all week thinking about them.With the season officially underway, we drill down on what we've deemed to be the two most interesting games so far; Lahn-Dill vs Hannover & Amiab vs Bidaideak.We then touch on scores and points of interest from other games around Europe and highlight some games that we're looking forward to this weekend!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Well, this has come around fast. Guess that's what happens when you take 4 months off.A lot of player movement has taken place over the summer, and a lot of teams look a lot different as a result. We discuss some teams, at varying levels of competitiveness whose outlook for the new season has us intrigued, excited or confused about their immediate future to the point where we won't miss a chance to watch them.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Well, looks like we overslept.Fortunately, one thing almost guaranteed to bring us out of our months-long hibernation is the handing out of Paralympic medals and our inability to fight the sense that people want to hear what we might have to say about it.And so we present our mega return episode. It covers everything important that happened in both the men's and women's wheelchair basketball at Paris 2024, and lasts almost as long as the tournament itself.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

4 teams. 4 games. 3-peat.This past weekend, we saw European club basketball's four established powerhouses go at it again. As with the two previous Final Four stages, Amiab Albacete came away with the biggest prize on the continent.We dive into the key moments that saw a worthy challenger emerge and momentarily threaten to take the crown, and what the keys were that were able to once again elevate Amiab above the competition.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

36 games, 24 teams, 9 sets of medals. Too many interwoven storylines to coherently explain.With the dust now settled on the EuroCup 1, 2 & 3 Finals, we take a tour from Valladolid to Sassari to Giulianova as we recap all the action.We talk about the most compelling teams, matchups, subplots and outcomes of the three tournaments, before looking ahead to Champions Cup this coming weekend!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Nothing like bringing the podcast back to its roots once in a while. We're very pleased to be joined by a first-time guest and first-season Sheffield Steeler.Abs Taghrest joins Bench Units to talk about a resurgent season for the club where this podcast originated, one that has seen them qualify to the EuroCup 3 Finals and hold the distinction of being the only amateur squad remaining at any level of the competition.Abs takes us through the season so far, and looks ahead to a daunting tournament for the underdog Steelers.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Who needs a guest when we have our own set of boots on the ground!Ahead of James travelling to Giulianova, we look ahead at each inmate on maybe the greatest Murderers' Row that EuroCup 1 Finals has ever seen.With at least 6 teams that could credibly win the competition in any given year, we try and plot each team's path through the pool stage and beyond.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

We have been accused of, and admitted to, not giving the French League the attention it deserves. Since this season began, Colin Higgins hasn't left us much of a choice but to take notice.The key off-season signing for Les Aigles du Velay last summer, Colin has helped to establish them as the class of the domestic league and be dominant in their EuroCup campaign so far.The Canadian forward turns up in his jeans, wool socks and work boots, in the hopes that he won't get roped into anything. But we won't let him leave without getting the insider's perspective on a EuroCup 2 Finals that will see his team take on Hannover, Cantù and French rival Le Cannet just to make it into the semi-finals.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Whether you think the Paralympic wheelchair basketball should have been cut to 8 teams or not, the Repechage tournament to decide the 8 was premium viewing content.After three days of seeding games, we saw Netherlands, Germany, Canada and France qualify for the chance to compete at Paris 2024.We break down the performance of each team, the biggest moments and results of the Repechage tournament, and how this shapes the picture for the big dance this summer.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

A lot can happen between two appearances on Bench Units.Tasked with overseeing one of wheelchair basketball's historic national programs return to prominence, Brad Ness joins us to talk about having already punched a coveted ticket to Paris via the AOZ tournament.From his position as a Roman Emperor watching the gladiators battle it out, Brad helps us to preview the upcoming Repechage Tournament that will see the final four teams qualify for Paris 2024.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This week, James is joined by frequent Bench Units guest Mendel to go through the Italian play-off semi final deciders, as well as trying to figure out what happened down the stretch of a drama-filled Spanish league game.If you like people going so far into wheelchair basketball games they come out the other side, this might be the episode for you.Available wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

3 days. 3 EuroCup Levels. 7 Groups. 33 Teams. 62 Games.This amount of hoops output can't be broken down in any reasonable fashion, so we've reverted to a Bench Units favourite and chosen to cherry-pick the topics that interest us, so long as they can be phrased like an awards category or meaningless cliché.We cover players we've never seen before, teams who are both a level above and below their assigned competition, and one of the most competitive QF groups we've ever seen.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

He's back, again! Coming off a pair of wins to secure the German Cup this past weekend, Tommy Böhme stops by to catch us up on the season so far and look ahead to this weekends Champions Cup Quarter Finals.RSV Lahn-Dill currently sit at 24-0 across all competitions within the season, and may be about to take on their toughest test as they face off against Albacete and Bilbao.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

DISCLAIMER: This episode was recorded prior to the news that the Ilunion-Amiab game, scheduled for the 2nd of March, had been postponed due to illness.Copa del Rey champion, MVP and now Bench Units Most Accommodating Player. What a week for Pincho Ortega.Poncho stops by to take us through Ilunion's signature win of the season so far, and how it sets up rematches with Amiab both in the league and potentially in the Champions Cup Final Four.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Almost as excited as last time, and one appearance away from being forced to intro the podcast, Arinn Young is back!Juice talks about the recent stretch of the season for Wiesbaden, which has seen them rise to third in the standings in Germany and qualify for the EuroCup 1 Finals.They also break down the past weekend's game against Hannover, the Rhinos' official rival.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode:Albacete are able to hold off a feisty Malaga team, including playing a quarter that felt like a choreographed movie fight scene.Lahn-Dill make it 2-0 against their nemesis, Thuringia Bulls, in what mostly felt like a brawl.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Aaaaand breathe.5 preliminary rounds, 23 teams, 44 games, all in about 36 hours.Anyone who has been there knows that the true currency of any EuroCup weekend is hours spent in the venue, between your own games, taking a crash-course in a bunch of teams you probably wouldn't watch otherwise. Of course, all of that is worth nothing if you can't show off your newfound expertise to anyone who will listen.That's where the first-ever edition of Courtside Clichés comes in! We pick through the crucial outcomes and storylines of this weekend, entirely framed in surface-level soundbites that can be trotted out to make your teammates believe you know what you're talking about.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

With EuroCup set to begin later this week, we were going to let last weekend slip by without a round-up, but an expansive slate of games left us no choice.In the first ever Bench Units Tasting Menu, we selectively nibble at the best and most meaningful games from 6 (!) leagues across the continent (UK, Turkey, France, Italy, Spain, Germany).Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

If you haven't heard about Oscar Knight yet, you probably don't consume any Bench Units content and therefore won't be reading this.The important thing is that WE have heard of Oscar Knight, and that means that both us and you get to hear from him.This out-of-nowhere rookie sensation, from a competitive AMFIV Vigo squad, joins us to talk about the unconventional path that has lead him from the south coast of England to the northwest coast of Spain.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

As we officially begin the ramp-up to the business end of the season, basketball is taking place on many fronts.As usual, we start out with a few league games that piqued our interest.We then move on to the placement games of the AOZ qualifiers, which has left both the Men's and Women's sides of Paris 2024 with 4 teams cemented and 8 teams vying for last-chance qualification via the Repechage Tournament in April.Finally, we look at the three Champions Cup and two EuroCup 1 qualifying rounds that take place on 2-3 February.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Happy 2024!We kick off our resolution of making the podcast better, first by musing on the feedback from our listeners and secondly from only talking about the games worth talking about.That taken care of, we take a look at the AOZ qualifiers and what we've learned about Austria, Iran & Japan from a highly competitive group stage.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

For the last weekend round-up of 2023, we cover an 11-game schedule across Spain and Germany.There's enough lukewarm musings in this episode to patch you through until the new year, so gather your all-time best and worst teammates, set your back castors on the three-point line and dive in.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This week, in Mark's absence, James is joined by Lahn Dill and Dutch national team player, and Bench Units regular, Mendel Op Den Orth.In what was meant to be an off week for the Spanish league, join the guys as they go through 9 games between Spain and Germany, and then answer a few listener questions, before handing out the belt.Listen in to our latest attempt at recording a podcast that Mendel doesn't feel the need to correct, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

In a week stuffed with 30-attempt games, lopsided quarters and wild +/- numbers, we saw everything from tier-clarifying blowouts to further-mystifying upsets.5 games in Spain, 5 in Germany, some more in places we don't have time for.Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

This week, we get a peek at what the world of wheelchair basketball would look like if the Americas didn't exist.Malaga take down Murcia, Munich squeak past Münsterland, other teams beginning with M are also available.Out now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

It's not every day we get our hands on someone who's coming off the best game of their season, in a result that “wasn't on the bingo card”.Rose Hollermann joins us from Santiago Chile to talk about basketball in Germany. We break down a surprising result in the biggest game of the German calendar so far, and what it might mean going forward.We then turn our attention to the ParaPan Am Games, which will determine which teams from the Americas qualify for Paris 2024.All that covered, Rose does us the honour of awarding (herself) The Belt. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Some teams love giving us content to chew over, other teams love to leave us without any stones to turn.Note that this episode doesn't contain any coverage of Lahn-Dill/Thuringia, as that will be covered in an upcoming guest episode!Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

What with having at least 5 minutes of extra basketball tacked onto the end of basically every game, it's a wonder we finished watching video in time to record an episode at all.With Friday being headlined by a clash of the Spanish titans, Saturday was free to deliver all the high-stakes extra basketball that Spain, Germany and France (!) could offer. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

We get back to rounding up the action, just in time to see a team shoot 64% for an entire game, a one-man wrecking crew give a 45-point performance, and a game-winning shot in an unexpectedly close affair. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe