There are a lot of places to begin this story, a tale of grit and determination that should inspire young basketball players. I could've started at the walk-on tryouts at Tennessee State or the YMCA in Chattanooga. But I just decided to tell you the craziest part first, then get to the details later.

So here goes.

The nation's leading rebounder began college playing intramurals.

That's not a joke.

Rashad Jones-Jennings is averaging 12.1 rpg this season. (Alicia Jerome)

His name is Rashad Jones-Jennings. He's a senior at Arkansas-Little Rock. But before his improbable path to Division I basketball began, the 6-8 forward was actually rejected as a walk-on at Tennessee State by former Tigers coach Nolan Richardson III.

"He probably doesn't even know where I'm at now," Jones-Jennings said with a laugh. "When he sees this article, he's going to really think something."

In fairness, Richardson is the same man who resigned under pressure from TSU after bringing a gun into an arena following an argument with an assistant back in 2003. So clearly, good judgment was never the guy's strongpoint. But still, even by Richardson's own loony standards, it's wild to hear he once had a young talent walk into his gym who would one day average more rebounds per game than guys named Greg Oden and Joakim Noah, and that he essentially shooed the kid off to the student recreation center.

"I wanted to walk on, but the coaches told me I'd be better off playing intramurals," Jones-Jennings said. "So that's what I did. I played intramurals and went to the team's practices and watched."

Watched practices?

"Yeah," Jones-Jennings said. "I asked the coaches if I could come to practices and just watch, and they said I could. So I went to practice every day. I never missed a day. I was just sitting there learning, trying to learn everything I could. I was basically like the water boy. I'd just get the players water and stuff. I didn't have too much pride. I just wanted to be a part of the team because I knew deep down inside that I could play at that level."

Before we go any further, think about how refreshing that is. In this era where players routinely transfer because a coach didn't let him shoot enough or play point guard enough or rest on defense enough, a kid who was rejected sought humility and asked if it wouldn't be too much of a bother if he hung around a bit, just listened and watched and grabbed water for the other guys when they needed it.

Mitch Mustain, this is not.

All the while, Jones-Jennings kept working. Every day. In the gym. He'd run and shoot, and this is pretty much how he spent his freshman year of college. Then when summer came Jones-Jennings went home to Chattanooga and started polishing his game at the local YMCA. His plan was to return to Tennessee State in the Fall, take another shot at trying out.

"But that summer this guy who played at Chattanooga State (Community College) saw me playing at the YMCA, and he came up and told me they needed a big man," Jones-Jennings said. "He told me I'd be perfect for them. So I was like, 'I'll come over there and check ya'll out' because I didn't have anywhere else to go. I wanted to go back to Tennessee State and try to walk on again, but I didn't know how that was going to play out. So I went over to Chattanooga State almost every day in the summer, and I earned a spot on the team like that."

Long story short, Jones-Jennings flourished. He played two seasons at Chattanooga State, leading the Tigers to a 21-6 record as a sophomore while averaging 14.0 rebounds per game. Naturally, people paid attention then, and Jones-Jennings accepted a scholarship from Arkansas-Little Rock, where he averaged 11.3 rebounds per game last season to rank third nationally in advance of averaging 12.1 rebounds per game this season to rank first nationally, percentage points ahead of Nevada's Nick Fazekas (12.07).

"Rashad's not the greatest athlete, and he doesn't have the highest vertical on our team," said UALR coach Steve Shields. "But he's a grinder, and he's a fighter. He's always working, always anticipating."

Basketball imitating life, it seems. And though Shields could talk for hours about that day last season when Jones-Jennings grabbed 30 rebounds against Arkansas-Pine Bluff to set a Sun Belt Conference record, that's not the story he tells when you ask him to tell you about his star player. Instead, he tells a story from last December when Jones-Jennings approached him about academics.

"Rashad came to me after our fall semester and said, 'Coach, I want to take 18 hours in the spring,'" Shields recalled. "I was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa,' because we're traveling all over the country for conference play, and that's the busiest time. So I said, 'There's no way, Rashad. You took 15 hours in the fall, passed 15, did well. Let's just keep it at 15.' But he said, 'No, coach. I want to be on track to graduate when my eligibility is up.' So I just told him that if he took 18 hours that he would have to stay with them and pass them all, and he said, 'You've got my word, Coach.'"

And ...

"Sure enough, he passed all 18 hours," Shields said. "Now he only lacks six hours to graduate this semester."

At this, the coach pauses. You can almost feel him smiling through the phone.

"That's the kind of kid Rashad is," Shields said. "He puts his mind to something, and he does it."

So that's the story of Rashad Jones-Jennings, and there's a good chance you'll never hear much about him again. He won't lead the Trojans to the Final Four, and he won't be in the green room at the NBA Draft. Come this time next week, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming of Kevin Durant and Tyler Hansbrough, and Jones-Jennings will be in Little Rock quietly grabbing rebounds with two hands and landing on two feet, just like he was taught.

And you know what?

That's fine.

Truth is, Jones-Jennings never wanted anything more than this, never anything more than a team and a chance. He was cut in sixth grade, which merely led to him trying out again. He was cut in seventh grade, which predictably led to him trying out again. He couldn't get off the bench of the junior varsity squad as a ninth grader, but that didn't deflate him. And he was told to play intramurals as a college freshman only to somehow become a college senior who is leading the country in rebounding while on track to graduate in May.

If that's the best the story ever gets, that's a great story.

If there's a kid looking for a role model, this is the place to look.

"I was told I couldn't do this my whole life, but I just kept pushing at it," Jones-Jennings said. "I never gave up because I believe that as long as you know deep down that you can do something and you work at it then you can do anything. So it's taken a lot of hard work, but it's just a blessing to be playing Division I basketball. It goes to show that if you work hard, good things can happen."