Miami University head men's basketball coach Travis Steele has announced the addition of assistant coach Jonathan Holmes. Holmes spent that past three seasons as an assistant coach at Elon.
"I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Coach Steele's first staff at Miami," said Holmes. "He and I have known each other for several years, and I am thrilled to be back in the Midwest working at such a great institution. Miami University certainly offers the best of both worlds when it comes to high level academics and athletics, so I am eager to get started and help Coach Steele build on his vision for RedHawk basketball."
This past season Holmes participated in the Top Connect Leadership Symposium with some of the nation's top assistant coaches and took part in Jay Bilis' Coaches Leadership program in 2021. Holmes, who worked primarily with the guards at Elon, helped produce four different members of the basketball program to all-conference honors during his time with the Phoenix.
While with the Phoenix, Holmes' top priority was coordinating the offense and helped Elon reach the Colonial Athletic Association Conference Championship game during the 2020-21 campaign. In that season, the Phoenix ranked fourth in the CAA in threes made per game (8.1) and fifth in total three pointers makes (154). Holmes also played a key role in helping two Phoenix student-athletes earn All-CAA honors that season. With Elon, Holmes was named a top-three assistant coach in the CAA by Stadium in 2020 and was also named a top-50 mid-major assistant coach nationally by Silver Waves Media that same year.
The Phoenix finished the 19-20 campaign ranked in the top-100 nationally in eight different offensive categories, including three-pointers attempted, three-pointers made, free throw percentage and assist to turnover ratio.
Holmes joined the Phoenix after spending 11 seasons as part of the William & Mary men's basketball staff, where he served as the associate head coach for his last six seasons with the program.
During his time with the Tribe, William & Mary produced four of the program's nine 20-win seasons, advanced to the Colonial Athletic Association Championship game on three occasions and the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) twice. In 2015, the Tribe captured its first CAA regular season championship since 1998.
During his tenure with W&M, Holmes helped in developing 22 All-CAA picks, nine 1,000-point scorers, 13 NABC All-District selections and seven CAA All-Rookie selections. On his resume, he recruited and developed current Minnesota Timberwolves forward Nathan Knight, a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award finalist, Lou Henson Mid-Major All-American and two-time All-CAA selection. He also helped develop 2014 CAA Rookie of the Year and three-time All-CAA selection Omar Prewitt, who finished his career ranked fifth in scoring (1,831 points) while bringing recent All-CAA selections Justin Pierce and David Cohn to the Tribe.
Holmes helped the Tribe to three-straight 20-win seasons from 2013-16, a first at W&M since 1949-51. William & Mary has posted double-digit conference wins in six consecutive seasons and led the CAA with 64 total conference victories during that span.
In overseeing the Tribe's academics from 2009-12, Holmes saw 15 Tribe players earn CAA All-Academic Team honors, including a CAA-best and program-record seven in 2012. Twice over a three-year stretch (2010 and 2012), he helped three of the team's five starters to the CAA All-Academic Team. During the fall of 2011, 12 of the Tribe's 14 players earned grade point averages of better than 3.0 and the team accumulated an overall GPA of better than 3.2.
Prior to joining William & Mary, Holmes served as an assistant coach at the Division II and NAIA levels. Holmes spent two seasons at Francis Marion in Florence, S.C., and one as an assistant coach and head junior varsity coach at Montreat College in 2005-06. Montreat compiled a 22-10 mark and won both the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles while reaching the second round of the NAIA Division II national tournament. Holmes has also served as a counselor at numerous North Carolina Men's Basketball Camps, as well as at his own Jonathan Holmes Basketball Camp in Bloomington, Ind., which started in 2002.
Holmes is a 2003 graduate of North Carolina, where he was a four-year letterman on the basketball team and graduated with a degree in communications with a 3.6 grade point average. He played in 76 career games and recorded nearly a two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio. A member of UNC teams that advanced to the 2000 Final Four, appeared in the 2003 NIT postseason tournament and won both the 1999 Maui Invitational and the 2002 Preseason NIT, Holmes was named to the 2003 ACC All-Academic Team.
After graduation, Holmes played professionally overseas for two seasons. He was a member of the Leicester Riders in the British Basketball League (England) during the 2003-04 season. The following season, Holmes was a member of the IC Horsens in the Basketligaen Danish League (Denmark). He averaged 14 points and five assists in helping IC Horsens to a runner-up finish during the regular season on the way to a tournament semifinal appearance in 2005.
Growing up in Indiana, Holmes was a four-year varsity starter for his father, J.R., Indiana's all-time winningest boy's high school basketball coach, at Bloomington South High School and capped his career as the runner-up for Indiana Mr. Basketball in 1999. He was the recipient of the John Wooden Citizenship Award in 1999, along with being a Nike High School All-American in the summer of 1998, a McDonald's All-American Nominee, a two-time first team All-State honoree and an Indiana All-Star team honoree.
