The Bench Units Podcast

It’s not every day a club from the other side of the world gets in touch out of the blue and volunteers a legend of the sport to give you the low-down on their continent’s upcoming season. In an episode recorded on 13th June, Mark is joined by Koen Jansens. Koen’s list of attributes contains gold and silver Paralympic medals, but most recently his attention has been on the growth of the Manly Whee...

Aaaand season. For our last recorded episode of the 20245/25 season, we break down the final standings and dramatic closing games, of the U23 World Championships. We try and pick out what Germany's crowning as champion might mean in the big picture, and pick out some potential future stars. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/sub...

The U23 World Championships are reaching boiling point. Ahead of today's semifinal action, we bring you our takes on the competition so far and predictions of how the medal games are going to pan out. We also give a nod to the newly-crowned French Champions after a stunning finals series. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subsc...

Spain concludes the season with a Final Four that lead to one final, seemingly inevitable, clash of the titans. And a team lifting the trophy after going 35-2 across all competitions. In France, we got two do-or-die second legs of the playoff semi-finals, culminating in two of the gutsiest wins of the year as the matchup is set for the Finals. To close the episode, we lay out what we’ll be coverin...

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 t...

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 Benc...

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/subscr...

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 yo...

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...

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/...

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 cou...

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...

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 Albacete Mideba hang 96 on Gran Canaria Vigo take down red-hot Malaga Köln with the first win over Lahn-Dill in the club's history EuroCup 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, wherev...

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-D...

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 unde...

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...

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 benchuni...

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