Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl was left with no other choice.

On a weekend that began with people around the nation buzzing about Chris Lofton's remarkable recovery from cancer, Bruce Pearl announced he was letting go Duke Crews and Ramar Smith.

Those within the program are probably privy to even more stories, but we do know that this isn't the first incident involving Smith or Crews.

Marijuana was found in Crews' apartment last year. He also failed at least one drug test, as sources close to the program disclosed to the Knoxville News Sentinel last year. He was never charged, but he was suspended from team activities for a month.

In September, Smith took Wayne Chism's car, crashed it, and left the scene, reportedly to attend to injuries.  No charges were filed, but the incident was certainly strange.

After being treated like kids for nearly two years, they're being held accountable for their actions like the grown men they are.

Pearl seems to have an uncanny ability to charm everyone be it the media, the fans, or an athletic department grateful for a winning basketball program. 

He's also a player's coach. That's one of the reasons he was not only able to get talented players like Crews and Smith on campus, but make the absolute most out of the players he already had on his roster.

But with his players, Pearl must juggle being the guy eveyone loves with the responsibility for maintaining discipline and control within his program.

Dismissing Crews and Smith was a necceasry step towards maintaining discipline, but why did it have to come to this? Why have so many promising young athletes thrown so much away, often times over weed?

Coach Pearl described his problems with the pair as being "sort of, over a period of time, a buildup."

I think so often the careless and irresponsible behavior of athletes is simply tolerated for as long as possible  at many schools as they try to simply make the best of the situation. After all, there are meetings to go to, funds to raise, practices, media functions and of course games to win. 

I do not know for sure if this is what happened with Smith and Crews at UT, but it's a distinct possibility.

If so, the two must feel bewildered. After being treated like kids for nearly two years, they're being held accountable for their actions like the grown men they are.

Athletic department policy states that a player must be dimissed for a failed drug test only after they've already failed three. And that's after Tennessee decided to increase the number of allowable failed tests by one last year.

Why have so many promising young athletes thrown so much away, often times over weed?

A less stringent apporach doesn't seem to be the answer.

Despite Josh Howard of the Dallas Mavericks saying "most" NBA players smoke weed, drug use by college athletes cannot be tolerated.

Unfortunatley for Smith and Crews they aren't in the league yet, and their chances of making it just took a serious hit. It's one thing for professional athletes to smoke weed and quite another for those on scholarship at an institute of higher education to be caught with it.

Of course, no one wins in a situation like this.

The dimissals mean Duke Crews and Ramar Smith won't have a chance to make good on the potential their freshman All-SEC selections in 2006-2007 hinted at.

Smith averaged 7.4 points a game for the Vols and was second on the team in assists as he split time at point guard.

Crews was sidelined midseason by a heart condition but managed 5.4 points and four rebound a game.

Crews' departure can be managed by the contributions in the paint of Brian Williams, Tyler Smith, and Ryan Childress.

Finding an answer at point guard may be more difficult as the Vols will likely look to incoming-freshman Daniel West or possibly Bobby Maze, a junior-college recruit.

I just hope all sides will consider taking different approaches in the future before the situation comes to this.

Then there's the human component. These young men are missing out on a valuable education, and maybe the most promising basketball opprotunity they'll ever have.

The system may not have been geared to help people like Crews and Smith, but let's remember that while those two were falling short according to Pearl, Chris Lofton was quietly fighting cancer and still working as hard as ever. Plenty other players under Pearl also managed to stay out of trouble.

The difference between the success stories like Lofton and the unfortunate cases like Smith and Crews are far too complex to reduce to a single factor. I just hope all sides will consider taking different approaches in the future before the situation comes to this.

However, we are ultimately judged by the choices we make. Just as Pearl did not force Lofton to handle cancer so courageously, he didn't force Crews and Smith into the decisions that ultimately led to their dismissal.

After all, they are indeed grown men.