By Kenneth Cross
Loyola Chicago becoming a member of the Atlantic 10 is a reminder that a solid Midwestern basketball program once again enters an eastern-based conference.
The Ramblers gave the Missouri Valley Conference a major city with their presence in Chicago. Now, they join the A-10 which already is host to Dayton and Saint Louis, and Loyola Chicago gives the Atlantic 10 initiative outside of that eastern region. 
Coach Drew Valentine took over the program when Porter Moser left for Oklahoma after the 2020-21 season and Valentine led Loyola Chicago to a 25-8 record with a 13-5 MVC ledger in 2021-22. The Ramblers tied for second in the regular season in ’21-22, but with a 64-58 win over Drake in the championship, Loyola Chicago was dealt a 10-seed in the NCAA’s South Region where it dropped a 54-41 decision to Ohio State in Round One.
So the Ramblers’ journey into the Atlantic 10 began after the NCAA Tournament loss as some people equate this to 2017 when successful Wichita State left the MVC and headed to the American Athletic Conference.
Valentine is a top coach and will be cast into a list of new A-10 head coaches as Frank Martin (UMass), Fran Dunphy (LaSalle), Matt McKillop (Davidson), Chris Caputo (George Washington), Keith Urgo (Fordham), and Archie Miller (Rhode Island) join Valentine in the A-10 coaching ranks.
McKillop takes over at Davidson since Bob McKillop, his father, retired after turning the Wildcats into a solid Southern Conference, Atlantic 10 and national competitor in his 33-year career.
Caputo comes aboard at George Washington after being the associate head coach at Miami for Jim Larranaga from 2015-2022 and he had been on the staff since 2011 as an assistant coach. The Hurricanes made it to the Elite Eight last season with a veteran team that was defeated by national champion Kansas.
Watch UMass as coach Frank Martin left South Carolina and he comes into his new position where he put together a solid coaching staff. It includes Allen Edwards, who played high school hoops for Martin in the last 1990s, former Minutemen head coach Derek Kellogg and former FSU power forward Douglas Edwards.
Fran Dunphy comes into his alma mater of LaSalle as he is the winningest coach in the history of the Philadelphia Big Five. Dunphy’s record is 580-325 in 17 years at Penn followed by 13 seasons as the head coach at Temple.
Fordham gets an inexperienced coach in Keith Urgo, who was the associate head coach to Mike Neptune last season before Neptune took over the Villanova program upon the resignation of Coach Jay Wright.
Urgo is a 20-year coaching veteran as he spent those at Villanova and Penn State as the Nittany Lions won 76 games in his last four seasons in State College, Pa.
Archie Miller now is the head coach at Rhode Island as he was 206-121 in ten seasons combined at Dayton and Indiana. Miller takes his second vigil into the A-10 as he won league championships at Dayton in 2016 and 2017. He also had 20-win seasons in six of those ten years at UD and IU.