With more than a third of the 14 A-10 schools hiring new coaches, including two of the top three teams from last season, and roster changes around the conference, Harrow believes the A-10 is more open than it\u2019s been the last couple of years. He sees that as both a challenge and an opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, he and Richmond head coach Alisa Kresge both see competing in the A-10 as their biggest challenge in their new jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not any [A-10] game you\u2019re walking into and thinking, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s gonna be an easy one, even if we don\u2019t bring our A game,’\u201d Kresge told The IX Sports. \u201cAnd so just making sure that we stay true to who we are and continue to challenge ourselves to get better every day. And worry about the small details and not the end goal, because you can\u2019t get there without handling the small details.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kresge is excited to be part of a conference that\u2019s been a two-bid league the last two seasons. She believes that with the NCAA Tournament expanding<\/a> from 68 to 76 teams, the conference should be getting at least two bids annually in the years to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rhode Island head coach Colleen Mullen is glad to be back in the A-10 after playing for Rhode Island from 1998 to 2000<\/a>. \u201cThe A-10 is just such a competitive league, from top to bottom,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 [And] the mission of the A-10 of really developing future scholar-athletes, I think, allows me to really recruit and attract a high level of student-athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n VCU head coach Chelsea Banbury also looks forward to the competitiveness of the conference and seeing how her basketball knowledge lines up with that of the other A-10 coaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gonna challenge you every day, but obviously you gotta show up and play every single game. But that\u2019s so fun,\u201d Banbury told The IX Sports. \u201cThere\u2019s a lotta good players, a lot of good coaches, and \u2026 that\u2019s exciting. The competitive side of me loves that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Neil Harrow takes over at Fordham\u00a0<\/p>\n A few months before becoming the head coach at Fordham, Harrow talked to his friend, mentor and former boss, James Madison head coach Sean O\u2019Regan. Harrow said, \u201cImagine if I was able to coach in the A-10?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He was hired to do just that after leading LIU to a 21-11 record<\/a> and the NEC Tournament championship game<\/a> in his lone season at the helm.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[It\u2019s a] really, really, really special opportunity for me to be here. And not just Fordham, but being in the A-10 is really special and definitely a dream [come true],\u201d Harrow told The IX Sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n One thing he appreciates about Fordham is how well-rounded it is.<\/p>\n \u201cThe academics are amazing, the campus is beautiful, the location\u2019s great and the athletics [are] also really strong across the board. And there\u2019s great history there,\u201d Harrow said. \u201c\u2026 During my interview on campus, when I saw the people and met some of the people that were just walking around campus, staff and students, it just \u2014 it\u2019s clearly a special place.\u201d<\/p>\n Last season, Fordham had the 12th-worst offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) in the A-10 at 84.5<\/a> and the 11th-worst defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 91.4<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited to \u2026 make improvements,\u201d Harrow said. \u201cHow do we get this program on track and more competitive? \u2026 I think it\u2019s gonna be a fun ride.\u201d<\/p>\n Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women\u2019s Sports Daily Staying in the New York area was important to him, and he believes that being in a major city is advantageous for recruiting. Harrow wants to bring and keep players home \u2014 transfers and high school prospects, respectively \u2014 as well as tap into international recruiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n He wants to find players who are efficient shooters but wants the team to be strong on both ends of the floor, noting, \u201cThere\u2019s no point in scoring 75 [if] you give up 80.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fordham returns six players<\/a> from last season, and Harrow and his staff spent time ensuring the new players aligned with the attributes they were looking for.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just about talent; it\u2019s about the right people,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have to fit what our standards are for our locker room and our culture as well as on the court. And they have to fit Fordham. And they have to also be good players.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Loyola Chicago hires first-time head coach Morgan Paige<\/p>\n In early April, Paige was participating in the 2026 Women\u2019s Basketball Coaches Association Next Generation Institute when she found out that Loyola Chicago deputy athletic director\/senior woman administrator (SWA) Holly Strauss-O\u2019Brien was going to reach out to her.\u00a0At the time, Paige was the associate head coach at Kansas.<\/p>\n Though she was preparing, she wasn\u2019t actively searching for her first head coaching role<\/a>. As she interviewed, she felt drawn to the school and the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I left campus, [I] was really hoping that they were gonna offer me the job, \u2019cause it did, it felt different than anything I had ever gone through before, in the best way,\u201d Paige said.\u00a0<\/p>\n On March 31, Loyola Chicago head coach Allison Guth resigned<\/a> \u201cbased on [her] personal need for more time with [her] family.\u201d Last season, she led the Ramblers to a 16-18 record, an eighth-place finish in the A-10 and the WNIT Super 16<\/a> in the program\u2019s first WNIT appearance<\/a>.<\/p>\n Paige has told the players that it isn\u2019t a rebuild.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cInside the locker room you have great, great kids that are \u2026 really good students,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re actually here for Loyola; they\u2019re trying to accomplish what they set out to do in their recruiting process. They wanna move them up. They wanna make them more competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat experience doesn\u2019t have to change, even though I\u2019m stepping into the reins. And I think that\u2019s \u2026 unique [and] exciting. You don\u2019t have to start over. I think the foundation that\u2019s in the locker room, they know what they wanna pursue, and it\u2019s my job to empower them to keep climbing and try to reach higher heights.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2014, she graduated<\/a> from Wisconsin, where she averaged<\/a> 10.4 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists over 118 games in four seasons. After a year of playing professionally<\/a> in Romania, Paige became a graduate assistant at Iowa State in 2015 before taking an assistant coach position at North Dakota State the next year and heading to Kansas in 2021<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paige worked for Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider for five seasons<\/a>. Though she wasn\u2019t sure she wanted to be a head coach, he pushed and empowered her to pursue that dream.<\/p>\n She often heard Schneider say that three to five unplanned things are going to come up every day that will need to be dealt with. He didn\u2019t tell her how to handle them, instead saying that she needed to find her \u201ccoach voice\u201d in her program. Schneider did tell her she\u2019s been in some of the situations she\u2019ll face before, even though she wasn\u2019t the one making the final decision then.\u00a0<\/p>\n After more than 2 decades, Colleen Mullen returns to Rhode Island\u00a0<\/p>\n Twenty-eight years after Mullen came to Rhode Island<\/a> as a freshman on the basketball team, she was named its head coach. After two seasons in Kingston, she transferred to New Hampshire. In 102 career games across both programs, she averaged<\/a> 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.0 steals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among the people she talked to about the job opening was one of her assistant coaches from her playing days in Kingston, current UMass assistant coach Dayna Smith, whose name can still be found throughout the Rhode Island record book. Smith was part of the program\u2019s first NCAA Tournament team<\/a> as a player in 1996 and is part of its Hall of Fame<\/a> and Ring of Honor<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe talked so much about \u2026 our passion for URI,\u201d Mullen told The IX Sports. \u201cAnd hearing how influential URI was on her life and her experiences and really molding her to [be] the coach and leader she is now, I think that was a huge piece of me knowing what type of school and what type of program it is at Rhode Island and how it can truly leave a lasting impression on my student-athletes that I recruit here.\u201d<\/p>\n She takes over a program coming off its second<\/a> A-10 regular-season co-championship, its first<\/a> Atlantic 10 Tournament title and its second NCAA Tournament appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mullen amassed<\/a> a 139-102 record in eight seasons at UAlbany, including two regular-season championships as well as one conference tournament championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n It took a special opportunity for her to leave UAlbany because of its support of women\u2019s basketball and the community she built. Mullen, already familiar with Rhode Island, met with vice president\/director of athletics Pat Lyons, deputy athletic director\/chief operating officer Brittney Miles, and now-former associate athletic director\/SWA Gina Sperry. After hearing their vision for the program, she knew that Rhode Island was the right fit.<\/p>\n Your business can reach over 3 million women\u2019s sports fans every single month!<\/p>\n Here at The IX Basketball<\/a> and The IX Sports<\/a>, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women\u2019s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com<\/a> to discuss ways to work together.<\/p>\n Mullen\u2019s vision for the program is to be the gold standard in everything it does and to have a consistent commitment to its standard of excellence in the classroom, on campus and in the community, and on the court. She said that after relationships and trust are built, the sky is the limit for player development and how the team develops as a whole.<\/p>\n Since returning to campus, Mullen has been flooded with memories, and the experience has felt full circle. \u201cI\u2019m excited to kinda take off here from where I left off,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alisa Kresge takes over at Richmond<\/p>\n When Kresge talked to Brian Giorgis about the opening at Richmond, she knew her mentor, former head coach and former boss would be straightforward with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis was the first job that he was like, \u2018It\u2019s a no-brainer for you, Kres,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s never said that before. And he\u2019s been around the business for a long time; he knows the people, the players, the universities, the style of play and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n She averaged<\/a> 2.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals over 125 games in four seasons playing for Giorgis at Marist.<\/p>\n In eight seasons at Vermont, Kresge recorded<\/a> a 145-89 record, became the program\u2019s winningest<\/a> coach, and made<\/a> the NCAA Tournament three times and the WNIT semifinals once over the last four seasons.\u00a0She takes over a Richmond program that has been to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons and won its first NCAA Tournament game in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vermont was Kresge\u2019s first head coaching job, and over time, she learned the importance of communicating and being transparent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCommunicating is a big piece of building relationships and I think getting the most [out] of each other. Or winning games we shouldn\u2019t win is because we\u2019ve communicated, we understand each other, we know how to push each other [and] we know how to support each other,\u201d Kresge said. \u201cAnd so those are just things I think I\u2019ve been even more transparent [about] than I ever was early on with our teams, so they understand where we\u2019re coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n Though leaving Vermont was difficult, she\u2019s excited about the opportunity, including how Richmond approaches college athletics holistically. She\u2019s also heard many positive things about the Richmond community, alumni and people on campus and how they rally around women\u2019s basketball and other sports. Richmond was second<\/a> in the conference in home attendance last year and averaged nearly 2,000 fans per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kresge wants her team to work hard, play with passion, love each other, have fun and win.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy vision is always just to do it the right way,\u201d she said. \u201cI think if you do it the right way, and you get people that are like-minded or passionate about the right things and are willing to work hard, the rest will come. And of course, we wanna be successful on the court, but it\u2019s more than just that. It\u2019s successful in life. \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[I get to] help them live their dreams out and even expand that vision of what they think they\u2019re capable of. \u2026 [I hope that] when they look back, they loved every second of it, even the hard days, because it helped grow them as human beings and [prepared] them for life after college.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n VCU hires High Point\u2019s Chelsea Banbury\u00a0<\/p>\n Coming off her third straight regular-season Big South championship<\/a> and second straight NCAA Tournament appearance at High Point, Banbury wasn\u2019t looking for a new job when VCU reached out to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n After talking to VCU vice president and director of athletics Ed McLaughlin about his vision and what she wanted out of her career, her next step was clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love making the NCAA Tournament and all that, but I do wanna be in a league that \u2026 can position you to hopefully have success in the NCAA Tournament and not just be happy with getting there and then getting matched up against the [No.] 1 or 2 seeds [as] a [No.] 15 or 16 seed,\u201d Banbury said.\u00a0<\/p>\n To do that, she wants to build a program that consistently finishes at the top of the A-10 and is still playing during the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n Rep The IX Sports at your next game! <\/p>\n Shop the logo collection or special \u201cWomen\u2019s Sports are Front Page News\u201d collection now on Shopify.<\/p>\n Banbury went 140-79<\/a> in seven seasons at High Point after spending<\/a> the first 11 years of her coaching career at Florida Gulf Coast (FGCU). She spent the first two years of her college playing career<\/a> at Yavapai College before transferring to FGCU. After redshirting the 2005-06 season due to injury, she averaged<\/a> 8.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals in 65 games over her final two collegiate seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n VCU went 8-23 (4-14 A-10) last season, and Banbury believes the biggest immediate challenge that awaited her was flipping the team\u2019s mentality from last season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough going through a season winning eight games, [and] just understanding that things have to change, and \u2026 it\u2019s gonna take a conscious effort to fix habits,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 You have to consciously be trying to change things for that to ever get fixed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the course of her career, Banbury has learned how important building a team and a culture with the right people is. For her, the right people are those who are willing to work and buy into what she wants to do as a coach and how she wants the team to play.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re gonna show up, we\u2019re gonna work and we\u2019re gonna enjoy doing it because we\u2019re around the right people and people that enjoy playing together and working towards a common goal,\u201d she said. \u201cSo the standard is gonna be no one\u2019s gonna outwork us. Effort will never be our mistake, and we\u2019ll learn basketball and be, hopefully, pretty good basketball players along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This season, five new head coaches will roam the sidelines in the Atlantic 10, and they are excited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[95620,56455,20239,7,95621,9014,9015,95622,217,18041,3360,41561,95623,231,772,1544,9017,95624,8105,25835,4542],"class_list":["post-790302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-2026-27-atlantic-10-season","tag-alisa-kresge","tag-atlantic-10","tag-basketball","tag-chelsea-banbury","tag-coaching-carousel","tag-coaching-change","tag-colleen-mullen","tag-college-basketball","tag-fordham","tag-head-coaches","tag-loyola-chicago","tag-morgan-paige","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-ncaaw","tag-neil-harrow","tag-rhode-island","tag-richmond","tag-vcu"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116944920255953562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Fordham](\"https:\/\/www.theixsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BWC2020-1024x683.jpg\")
Fordham head coach Neil Harrow poses for a photo with the Ram at his introductory press conference. (Photo credit: Fordham Athletics) <\/p>\n
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women\u2019s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women\u2019s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!<\/p>\n![\"Loyola](\"https:\/\/www.theixsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26_WBB_Welcome_Coach_Mo_66-1-1-1024x736.jpg\")
Loyola Chicago head coach Morgan Paige poses in front of her welcome message at Gentile Arena. (Photo credit: Loyola Chicago Athletics) <\/p>\n![\"Rhode](\"https:\/\/www.theixsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Presser-33-1024x683.jpg\")
Rhode Island head coach Colleen Mullen poses with Rhody the Ram (left), vice president\/director of athletics Pat Lyons (second from left) and president Marc Parlange (right) at her introductory press conference. (Photo credit: Rhode Island Athletics)<\/p>\n![\"With](\"https:\/\/www.theixsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-03-22T002810Z_1023036307_MT1USATODAY28560177_RTRMADP_3_VERMONT-CATAMOUNTS-HEAD-COACH-ALISA-KRESGE-INSTRUCTS-HER-1024x734.jpg\")
Then-Vermont head coach Alisa Kresge talks to her team in a huddle during a timeout in a game against Louisville in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky., on March 21, 2026. (Photo credit: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n![\"High](\"https:\/\/www.theixsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-03-22T000143Z_721770547_MT1USATODAY28559885_RTRMADP_3_HIGH-POINT-COACH-CHELSEA-BANBURY-WATCHES-HER-TEAM-FACE-1024x683.jpg\")
Then-High Point head coach Chelsea Banbury looks toward the court as her team takes on Vanderbilt in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tenn., on March 21, 2026. (Photo credit: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/unisex-premium-sweatshirt-black-zoomed-in-69d805eea2e49-1024x1024.webp\")
<\/a><\/p>\n