KNOXVILLE — Tyler Smith took a circuitous route before settling in with his beloved University of Tennessee men’s basketball program.
He was dismissed in a direct line Friday morning.
Smith — a two-time, All-Southeastern Conference forward with “Tennessee” tattooed on his chest — was removed from the program exactly one week following a routine traffic stop uncovered two weapons, a bag of marijuana and an open container of alcohol.
The other three arrested players in the car that morning — junior center Brian Williams, junior point guard Melvin Goins and sophomore guard Cameron Tatum — remain indefinitely suspended pending further investigation. None of the three will play in 16th-ranked UT’s Sunday game against top-ranked, undefeated Kansas.
Smith was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm with an altered serial number. The alteration charge was initially listed as a felony but later categorized by the Knoxville Police Department as a misdemeanor.