Jones-Jennings -- classic tale of rejection and triumph

"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."