The Tennessee Volunteers need to start recruiting more players for their college basketball team. This comes on news that four Tennessee basketball players were arrested Friday morning.
The Knoxville, TN police department said the Tennessee basketball players arrested were starting senior forward Tyler Smith, 23 (pictured); junior point guard Melvin Goins, 22; junior center Brian Williams, 22; and sophomore guard Cameron Tatum, 21. They were arrested during a traffic stop for speeding near Tennessee's campus.
It wasn't the speeding that led to the Tennessee basketball players being arrested. It was instead the fragrance of marijuana (which led to the discovery of a bag), as well as an open container of alcohol and guns, one of which was a handgun with an altered serial number, under the driver's and front passenger's seats. Possession of a firearm with an altered serial number is a felony in the state of Tennessee.
Among the four Tennessee basketball players arrested, the following charges have been set, so far: Smith is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number. Tatum, Goins and Williams are all charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, and Tatum is also charged with having an open container of alcohol. Williams and Goins were also charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, and Williams was also charged with possession of a firearm with an altered serial number.
All the four Tennessee basketball players arrested were charged with unlawful possession of a firearm because none would admit to owning the weapons. Smith and Williams were the only ones to receive felony charges of the firearm with an altered serial number because the gun with the altered serial number was under the seat in which Smith was sitting and thus accessible by either Smith or Williams, who was seated behind him.
Of the four Tennessee basketball players arrested, Tyler Smith has the most to lose from this incident. He had been considered a potential NBA draft pick, though he announced last June that he would not enter the NBA draft when it became apparent he would not be a first round pick.
It is unclear what the university will do in this case. While often these sorts of things are given a hand slap, the fact that there is a felony involved for the four Tennessee basketball players arrested might make somewhat of a difference, at least for Smith and Williams.
In fact, CBS Sports says it has been informed that Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl plans to indefinitely suspend all four Tennessee basketball players who were arrested. At that point, Pearl would then gather more details before determining which players, if any, will continue their careers as Volunteers.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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