The regular season starts Nov. 3 for most teams. The Dayton Flyers play Canisius that night at UD Arena.
One A-10 team, though, heard the type of news Wednesday that typically comes out in the spring. Saint Joseph’s announced coach Billy Lange is leaving the Hawks for a job in player development with the New York Knicks.
Lange was 81-104 in his tenure at Saint Joseph’s. The Hawks posted their best record of his tenure last season, finishing 22-13 overall and 11-7 in the A-10. The fifth-place finish was their best since they finished fourth in 2018, the second-to-last season for longtime coach Phil Martelli.
Saint Joseph’s ended Dayton’s NCAA tournament dream with a 73-68 overtime victory in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament in March. It was the last victory for Lange, whose team lost to George Mason in the A-10 semifinals and to Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Steve Donahue, a former head coach at Cornell, Boston College and Pennsylvania, will replace Lange. Saint Joseph’s hired Donahue as Lange’s associate head coach in May. Donahue led Penn to a 78-70 victory against Dayton at UD Arena in December 2017 in Anthony Grant’s first season as Flyers head coach.
“(Saint Joseph’s) is a program I watched closely from our great match-ups in the Big 5,” Donahue said, “and I’ve long admired St. Joe’s for its legacy, tradition and dedicated fan base. But nothing prepared me for what I saw when I joined the team. We are athletic, deep and talented; we have the people, culture and first-class facilities. We have everything we need to win.”
Donahue will be one of four new A-10 coaches in the 2025-26 season. With Lange leaving, here’s how the A-10 coaches rank in terms of tenure:
1: Chris Mooney, Richmond (21st season, 358-290, .552): The Spiders suffered their second-worst season of Mooney’s tenure last season, finishing 10-22 overall. They tied for second-to-last place in the A-10 with a 5-13 mark.
2: Mark Schmidt, St. Bonaventure (19th season, 324-238, .577): The Bonnies have not finished above .500 in the A-10 the last three seasons after an eight-year run of double-digit A-10 victories.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
3: Anthony Grant, Dayton (ninth season, 172-83, .675): Dayton has finished in the top three in the A-10 four straight seasons and six times in Grant’s eight seasons but has won only one A-10 regular-season championship (2020). It has not won an A-10 tournament title in his tenure.
4: Drew Valentine, Loyola Chicago (fifth season, 83-51, .619): The Ramblers tied for the A-10 regular-season championship in 2024 and tied for fourth last season after a last-place finish in their first season in the league in 2023.
T-5: Matt McKillop, Davidson (fourth season, 48-49, .495): The Wildcats have averaged 6.3 A-10 victories in McKillop’s first three seasons. With his dad Bob as head coach in Davidson’s first eight seasons in the league, they averaged 11.4 A-10 victories.
T-5: Chris Caputo, George Washington (fourth season, 52-46, .531): The Revolutionaries hit the 20-win mark last season for the first time since 2017.
T-5: Archie Miller, Rhode Island (fourth season, 39-55, .415): Miller has improved his win total in each of his three seasons with the Rams but has struggled to find consistent success in seven seasons as a head coach since leading Dayton to four straight NCAA tournament appearances (2014-17).
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
8: Tony Skinn, George Mason (third season, 47-21, .691): The Patriots tied a school record with 27 victories last season and posted their best A-10 record (15-3) in 12 seasons in the league.
T-9: Josh Schertz, Saint Louis (second season, 19-15, .559): The Billikens finished 19-15 overall and 11-7 in the A-10 in Schertz’s first season.
T-9: Dru Joyce III, Duquesne (second season, 13-19, .406): The Dukes experienced their greatest season in decades in coach Keith Dambrot’s final season in 2023-24, finishing 25-12, but finished 13-19 overall and 8-10 in the A-10 in Joyce’s first season.
T-11: Darris Nichols, La Salle (first season): Nichols was 68-63 in four seasons at Radford. He replaces Fran Dunphy, who retired after posting a 45-55 mark in three seasons with the Explorers. James Haring, a former director of operations for Grant at Dayton, is one of Nichols’ assistant coaches.
T-11: Phil Martelli Jr., Virginia Commonwealth (first season): The most successful A-10 program over the past 13 seasons is also tied for the A-10 lead for most coaches in that span.
Martelli, who was 43-25 the last two seasons at Bryant, will be the fifth coach VCU has had since it joined the A-10. He replaces Ryan Odom, who took the head coaching job at Virginia, after leading VCU to the A-10 regular-season and tournament championships in 2025.
T-11: Mike Magpayo, Fordham (first season): Fordham also has had five coaches in the past 13 seasons. Magpayo was 89-63 the last five seasons at UC Riverside. He replaces Keith Urgo, who was fired after three seasons.
T-11: Steve Donahue, Saint Joseph’s (first season): He has a career record of 331-344 in 24 seasons.
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