Published: May 08, 2008 03:49 pm         

ROCKY TOP BEAT: Character matters

Here we are in the off season once again and the news from UT has more to do with off the field, or in this case, off the court issues, than the actual play. The spring football game should be the talk of the area with Jonathan Crompton showing he can run the newly installed offense by new offensive coordinator David Clawson.

But that was shadowed by a few character issues coming out of the UT basketball program.

One of them is a major story, the other two, well not totally shocking.

First, a few words about the latter.

Duke Crews and Ramar Smith decided not to take advantage of a chance of a lifetime to play for UT and get a free education. Instead, it appears that the lack of self discipline has won again with these young men and they have let themselves, their families and their teammates down.

I feel a little bad for Ramar Smith as he probably did not have the study skills needed to succeed coming out of high school and was a late qualifier to gain admittance to UT two years ago.

That said,he failed to take advantage of the tutoring available to all UT athletes to turn his life around and that is something he will have to deal with the rest of his life.

For Duke Crews, maybe he can look up Major Wingate and see how his life is working out for him, and then he might want to take a directional change in his lifestyle. With the medical problems that were detected last season, you would have thought that common sense would have prevailed in his circumstance.

I have said many times that character matters and this season we all witnessed exceptional character displayed before our very eyes. The problem is we did not realize at the time that we were seeing one of the greatest examples of character in a student athlete that we will not see anytime soon.

I am talking of course about Chris Lofton. While fans and media were commenting about his lost shot and the varying reasons for it, Chris steadily night after night dealt with the real reason and never once wavered from his decision not to tell his team or fans what he was going through.

What he was going through was a fight with testicular cancer that he had been treated for after the NCAA tournament the year before, complete with chemo and radiation that took his strength and affected his shooting. Still, he remained Chris throughout the season.

No self pity, no excuses, and 110 percent effort every night on the court. All of that came thundering home a few weeks ago when he revealed what he had been dealing with since 2007 when a routine drug test by the NCAA revealed his cancer problem.

Too many times we are way too critical of student athletes when they are just trying their best to succeed and sometimes we forget they are human with the same problems we face in life.

College life is hard enough for the average young person to adjust to, imagine what it must be like to deal with a life-threatening illness and still compete at the highest level. Then think how it must have felt to hear that because he was selected as a first team preseason All-American that he couldn't take the spotlight and that is why his shot had gone. What a bitter pill that must have been for this young man that never asked for anything in the four years he played at UT.

Now that the story is out and Chris is thankfully cured of this disease, I would hope that we all take a step back and reflect on what this situation means to all UT fans.

Maybe the next time a player is performing less than at their peak, we will remember Chris Lofton and give the benefit of the doubt to the student athlete. Just maybe the extra support will be enough to get them back on track and help all of us hear "Rocky Top" played with new meaning in the future. Thanks Chris for a lesson we all will not soon forget. Go Vols!!

Frank Gale is a Chronicle correspondent, and his column appears periodically.