Jonathan Holmes is Texas’ lone survivor

The constantly evolving nature of college basketball has a way of making young men occasionally feel like seasoned veterans. In a sport with so much turnover, a four-year contributor is a rarity coaches no longer take for granted. This is how a 21-year-old becomes a sage, a steady hand counted on for guidance and wisdom. Just ask Jonathan Holmes, the senior forward who already feels like he’s been through a lifetime of experiences at Texas.

When Holmes arrived in Austin, the future of Texas basketball seemed brimming with promise. The Longhorns had just made Tristan Thompson and Jordan Hamilton first-round picks in the NBA and a new six-man recruiting class was set to replenish the roster with talent. At that point, Holmes was not seen as a future savior -- he was the guy coach Rick Barnes latched onto only after losing a commitment from DeAndre Daniels.

Texas’ 2011 recruiting class was headlined by Myck Kabongo, a talented but enigmatic point guard whose troubled career in Austin served as a parable for a proud program that suddenly found itself struggling. Things got bad for Barnes, and they got bad quickly.

The Longhorns limped into the NCAA Tournament in Holmes’ freshman year only to be immediately dispatched by Cincinnati in their first game. The next season was defined by Kabongo’s battle with the NCAA that eventually led to a 23-game suspension. On the court, a loss to Chaminade just three games into the year was the type of defeat Texas couldn’t recover from. The Longhorns finished under .500 and Barnes missed the Big Dance for the first time in his 15-year tenure.

One by one, the players who entered the program with Holmes in 2011 started to leave. Kabongo declared for the NBA Draft and went unselected. Sheldon McClellan transferred to Miami, where he’s now the Hurricanes’ leading scorer. Sterling Gibbs transferred to Seton Hall. Julien Lewis transferred to Fresno State. Jaylen Bond transferred to Temple. Suddenly, Holmes was the last man standing.

With Barnes thought to be on the hot seat, there wasn’t much expected from Texas last season. The wave of transfers left Texas with a team consisting almost entirely of freshmen and sophomores. Jonathan Holmes was the only upperclassman.

If his first two years in school were defined by turmoil, Texas became something of a likable underdog last season, an improbable role for a juggernaut athletic program. Holmes and Cam Ridley formed a tenacious frontcourt, while freshman point guard Isaiah Taylor proved to be an immediate contributor. Texas won an NCAA Tournament game over Arizona State and laid the groundwork for a season with big expectations.

The early returns for Texas in the new year are promising, and so much of it is because of Holmes. He’s playing like an All-American in his senior season, expanding his game and changing his body to power an undefeated team that looks complete enough to challenge for a Final Four.

The story of a player adding or losing weight has been told so many times in basketball that it starts to lose its meaning, but that shouldn’t diminish from what Holmes did over the summer. As prized freshman 7-footer Myles Turner entered the program, Holmes knew he would find himself on the wing more often. He slimmed down from 254 pounds to 232 pounds, and in the process gave Barnes a small forward almost no team in the country can match up with.

Holmes always had potential as a face-up shooter, but what he’s doing six games into his senior season is unprecedented. After taking a big leap to turn himself into a 33.3 percent shooter from deep as a junior, Holmes has evolved into one of the country’s biggest three-point threats, both literally and figuratively. He’s taking 3.5 shots a game from behind the three-point line this year and is knocking down 62 percent of them.

For a Texas team that seems to annually lack shooting, it’s no small development. With Ridley, Turner and junior Prince Ibeh on the inside, the threat of a kickout to Holmes for an open three is a terrifying one. When Texas puts in stretch four Connor Lammert, suddenly the Longhorns have the skill to match their size in the frontcourt.

Texas’ 6-0 start is no fool’s gold. They’ve already gone through a tough Iowa team, a Cal squad that blew the doors off Syracuse and upset UConn at home when the Huskies hadn’t lost during the regular season to a non-conference opponent in Storrs since 1993. In a physical game where both teams struggled to find a groove offensively, it was Holmes’ fourth three of the game -- a leaner from the corner out of a timeout -- that won it for the Longhorns as time expired.

The numbers back up Holmes’ inspired effort. He’s on the brink of the top 100 in the country in effective field goal percentage, going from a 55.6 percent shooter as a junior to a 65 percent shooter as a senior, according to KenPom. That number is good enough to have finished in the top 10 of the country last year if it can be sustained for a full season. Holmes’ newfound reliance on the three ball is a big reason why. Over 42 percent of his shots are coming from three-point territory this season, a 12 percent raise from last year.

If Kentucky, Wisconsin and Duke have established themselves as the cream of the crop in college basketball this season, Texas isn’t far behind. A wrist injury to Taylor robs some of the intrigue from Texas’ Friday night matchup with the Wildcats, but if there’s a reason some think the Longhorns can hang with John Calipari’s crew, it’s because of Holmes. It’s been a long time coming.

Few players can say they’ve seen their school go from national contender to massive disappointment to contender again all in four short years. With a dynamic senior season just getting started, Holmes must be glad to see it all through.