Loyola University Chicago Athletics

Allison Guth is in her fourth season at the helm of the Ramblers in 2025-26. She became the program's 10th head coach after returning in 2022 to Rogers Park having previously served as an assistant for the Ramblers from 2005-07.

The Ramblers kicked off the 2024-25 season winning four of their first five games and built a 10-5 overall record as conference play began. Loyola Chicago ended the season with its first-ever win over VCU and completion of a season sweep over rival Saint Louis. The win over the Billikens was powered by a non-field trip day record crowd of 1,095. After the campaign, four Ramblers garnered College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors for their hard work in the classroom.

Loyola Chicago had a memorable 2023-24 season, overcoming low preseason expectations to make their voices heard in a competitive Atlantic 10 Conference. With a 15-16 overall record and an 8-10 conference mark, the Ramblers impressed after being picked last in the preseason coaches’ poll. Loyola's nine-win improvement from 2022-23 to 2023-24 was the second-best turnaround in the Atlantic 10. 

In non-conference play, Loyola defeated Northwestern for the first time in program history, ending a 25-game losing streak against its cross-town rival. This victory ignited a four-game winning streak from Nov. 29 to Dec. 18, before the Ramblers fell to Caitlin Clark and national runners-up, Iowa. The Ramblers continued to make waves in conference play, securing a win over eventual league runners-up, Rhode Island.

The Ramblers’ strong season earned them the No. 8 seed in the 2024 Atlantic 10 Championship, along with a first-round bye. With the extra rest, the Ramblers claimed their first postseason victory since 2020-21, defeating Fordham, 53-52, in the second round. Their tournament run ended in the quarterfinals with a loss to conference champions, Richmond.

Following the season, Sam Galanopoulos and Sitori Tanin were repeat selections on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Women's Basketball Team, and Thoranna Kika Hodge-Carr earned her first recognition. Galanopoulos also turned heads by becoming the Ramblers' first-ever representative on the Atlantic 10 All-Conference Third Team.

The Rogers Park community rallied behind the team, with an average of 711 fans attending games at Gentile Arena in the 2023-24 season, the highest attendance in program history.

Despite a challenging record, Guth laid a strong foundation in her first season with the Ramblers in 2022-23. Loyola achieved a 5-9 record in non-conference play, with Guth's 100th-career win coming in the season-opener against Western Michigan on Nov. 7. The team secured its first Atlantic 10 victory with a 60-47 road win at Saint Louis. Guth's commitment to academic excellence was evident, with Galanopoulos and Tanin named to the 2022-23 CSC Academic All-District® Team, and Tanin earning a spot on the league's All-Academic Team.

Guth spent the seven seasons prior at Yale where she served as head coach for six of those seasons, amassing 99 wins.
 
Guth led Yale to unprecedented levels of success during her seven years in New Haven, Conn., piloting the Bulldogs to five consecutive winning seasons.  In her third year at the helm, Yale finished with a program-record 19 wins en route to winning the Women’s Basketball Invitational, becoming the first Ivy League team to win a national postseason women’s basketball tournament.  Guth’s team matched the feat in 2020-21, finishing 19-8 (9-5 Ivy) before seeing its season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
While at Yale, Guth, who was an assistant coach with the Bulldogs from 2010-12, mentored 11 All-Ivy League selections, a group highlighted by the pairing of Tamara Simpson and Roxie Barahman.  Simpson was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year in 2016-17 and 2017-18, closing her career ranked second on the conference’s all-time steals leaderboard with 347 thefts, while Barahman became the first Bulldog in six years to earn back-to-back First Team All-Ivy League nods in both 2018-19 and 2019-20.
 
Guth’s teams also shined in the classroom, with eight student-athletes earning Academic All-Ivy League honors.  Four of her Bulldog teams received the NCAA Public Recognition Award for recording an Academic Progress Rate score that ranked in the top 10 among Division I women’s basketball programs.
 
No stranger to the Chicagoland area, Guth bookended her time as an assistant coach at Yale with stints at both Northwestern (2013-15) and DePaul (2008-10). 
 
While with the Wildcats, Guth, who served as the team’s recruiting coordinator in addition to her role as an assistant coach, was part of a staff that totaled 53 wins over three seasons, including a 2014-15 campaign in which Northwestern went 23-9 (12-6 Big Ten), posting the program’s top win total in nearly 20 years as the Wildcats earned their first NCAA Tournament berth since the 1996-97 season.
 
During her time in Lincoln Park, Guth spent two seasons as director of basketball operations, handling video exchange and scouting in addition to being involved with on-campus recruiting and summer camps.  The Blue Demons made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament with Guth on staff.
 
Prior to a one-year stop at Missouri as an assistant coach in 2007-08, Guth cut her teeth in the coaching ranks during her aforementioned time at Loyola.  She aided in the recruitment of former Rambler great Maggie McCloskey, who still ranks as the program’s all-time leader in multiple three-point shooting categories.
 
A three-year letterwinner at the University of Illinois, Guth, a native of Arlington Heights, Ill., was a member of the 2003 Fighting Illini team that reached the NCAA Tournament.  She captured an Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class 2A state title at Buffalo Grove High School in 2000, later earning induction into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame with the team in 2013.
 
Guth and her wife, Jessie, are proud parents to two sons, Ray and Garvey.