The Bench Units Podcast

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, whi...

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....

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

She's back! A lot has happened since the last time Kady Dandeneau joined us. In the last 14 months she has: Moved to an island Been awarded the All-Star 5 in a Champions Cup quarter-final round Competed at a wild World Championships Moved to another island Been awarded the Bench Units Belt All of this is discussed in great detail, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full access to Bench Units at b...

How do you evaluate a team based on two games? They lost to a team better than them one week, and beat a team worse than them the next, but are those teams actually better or worse, or is that based on their own two games that are impossible to parse? Truth is, nobody knows at this point. Unless the team in question is the undefeated Burgos. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Get full...

Spain is back! Ilunion complete the comeback on Bilbao for the second time in 7 days. Burgos start out undefeated. Amiab rely on having more good players than their opponent. Malaga look potentially dangerous. Germany is back! Münsterland are here for the fight. Wiesbaden have got plenty of pieces. Thuringia seemed to be short of pieces, but able to manage just fine. Trier have Dirk Passiwan. Muni...

Our second belated review podcast of the summer! We talk all things Euros. GB men and Netherlands women extend their dominance on the respective sides of the competitions, we see some early tickets punched to Paris 2024, and the stage is set for a slobber knocker of a repechage tournament. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subs...

Recovered from the 2023 edition of the 2022 World Championships yet? Well now’s no time to relax! There are Paralympic spots on the line and many a team keen to either build on this summer’s earlier success or wash a bad taste out of their mouth. James and Mark break down tournament that will see the Dutch look to retain two gold medals, Italy try to claim a belated Bronze, and Spain and Turkey re...

We know we're late to the party, but you can do whatever you want when you win the silver. After a bit of a summer break, James has had chance to clear his head and top lip, and we're ready to talk Worlds. The guys give their analysis for both the Men's and Women's World Championships competitions, covering the final standings, surprise results and storylines, and key moments of the tournament. Ge...

It must be November last year, because it's officially World Championships time! Absent his usual co-host, who is getting ready to partake in basketball rather than fake some in-depth analysis, Mark does what precisely nobody asked for and talks to himself for almost an hour solidly. And if that seems crazy, he then writes this episode description in the third person for no obvious reason. Everyth...

Regular listeners will know that we do our best to stay in our lane at all times we're on the record. Despite our best efforts, we (Mark) occasionally get off the chain and have to face the consequences of the things we said and ultimately still stand by. To that end, we are joined by Jack Perry of London Titans. After demanding the opportunity to come on the podcast and defend his team's honour,...

11 months after he joined us to announce his move to Albacete, Phil Pratt is back to give us the breakdown on closing out his first season there as a Champions Cup winner. Phil talks through the season up to this point, a crucial two weeks between Copa del Rey and Final Four, and emerging victorious in the two biggest games of the season. He also picks up The Belt on his way. Available now, wherev...

They literally don't get much bigger than this. With his rookie season in the books, we welcome Tommy McHugh of the newly crowned EuroCup 3 champions, Hannover United! Tommy talks us through his early days of following a path trodden by some Rollers legends, his jump to Europe under the watchful eye of Shaun Norris, and what Hannover have to do to continue building on a successful season. Get full...

So. Many. Games. We applaud newly-crowned Champs on three levels, critique some All-Star selections, shout out the underdogs who make tournament basketball the mayhem that it is, and look ahead to Europe's four superpowers fighting it out next weekend. We also do our best to reduce 3 concurrent competitions of basketball down to one Belt holder. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substac...

This week, are joined by back-to-back Copa del Rey winner and not back-to-back All-Star 5 member, James MacSorley. We salute Amicacci Giulianova as they travel the Scudetto trophy home in admirably brash fashion. We applaud Thuringia Bulls as avenge last year's playoff result, reclaiming the German Championship, on their home floor, against their nemesis. Finally, we self-congratulate on Bilbao's...

In a weekend defined by sign-me-up-for-next-season standout performances, we see the final games of the Spanish league play out and an anticlimactic beat down in Game 1 of the German title series. We also get to award The Belt to a season-long Bench Units favourite. Stay tuned for a big weekend coming up, as we will see a German champion crowned and the entirety of Spain's season-defining Copa del...

As we get our episode schedule back on track for the stretch run of the season, we fall back on the tried-and-tested formula of roping in one of James’ teammates. Lukas talks to us about his first professional season, the jump to Spain, Germany's youth movement and how it has all lead to his first-time selection to his Senior National Squad. Lukas also lets us in on what it's like to have James as...

We take a break from club basketball to analyse our first taste of international competition, with respective national beginning to ramp up for the 2023 World Championships and Europeans. We break down the six teams that appeared in Belgium's Easter Tournament, while also touching on two of the first nations to announce their final 12-man squads after using the past week for selection camps. Get f...

In the penultimate week of the División de Honor, we see a game-winning bucket, game-deciding 24-9 run, and a league-deciding 13-0 start to a game. In the second leg of the German Playoffs, we say a teary “until next season” to a couple of Bench Units favourites, but delightedly saddle up for at least 2 more games between the league's resident powerhouses. We also see some Belt-based bribery, whic...

With a shorter slate of games this week, we get in-depth on some of the results of consequence! We see the previously undefeated Amiab take their first loss of the season, in a game that would of officially clinched them the league title. Consider the inevitable delayed on this one. We also see Rhine River Rhinos put a brief scare into a heavily-favoured Thuringia team, and Hannover push Lahn-Dill...

A weekend this packed needed a round-up episode, even if it is late! We see Amicacci Giulianova punch their ticket to the Italian League Finals, Amiab Albacete nail down the top spot in the Spanish standings, and the German League Playoffs take form. All that covered, we give The Belt to one of the most indisputable stat lines of the season. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.co...

In the busiest weekend in Weekend Roundup history, we try and cover off 9 qualifying rounds across the various levels of EuroCup basketball. We discuss some imbalanced groups, some outlandish performances, some promising and deep final rounds to come, at least one sleeping giant at the club level, and what we've learned about some teams from seeing them play unfamiliar opponents. All that covered,...

You (repeatedly) asked, we (eventually) delivered. The best 1.0 to ever shoot a basketball finally joins the show to take us through everything, from his unorthodox origin story in the game, to his never-ending world tour of clubs, to an international career that shows no signs of slowing down. Abdi tries to list all the teams he has played for, talks about prep for an intense summer of competitio...