Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has shown he can make the Vols winners on the court, and he said he's committed to doing the same thing in the classroom.

UT had one of the worst graduation rates for freshmen entering school from 1996 to 1999 (8 percent), according to a study released by the Associated Press Monday.

Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, performed the study.

"That information provided is unacceptable by any standard,'' Pearl said. "We take our responsibilities seriously. We're spending more time dealing with academics than ever. There is a formula to improve.''

Pearl's formula has been to let the players know he takes their studies serious.

UT freshman point guard Ramar Smith was not permitted to work out or practice with the team until he had attended class for a week, as Pearl wanted to ensure Smith was comfortable in the academic environment.

This, despite the fact that Smith was projected to take over starting point guard duties and was forced to miss both terms of summer school after getting hung up in the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Sophomore Tony Passley is yet another example of Pearl's iron-fisted approach to academics.

Pearl has said Passley has separated from the team to "focus on academics.''

Passley did not travel to the Vols' regular-season finale at Georgia, nor the SEC tournament in Atlanta, and he will not play in the NCAA tournament with UT.

"We need to get a few years of good graduation rates to change the trend,'' Pearl said. "I'm very proud we've had nine 'Vol Scholar' winners, and a team GPA of almost 3.0.''

Student athletes get the right to wear a special patch under the VOLScholar program, which recognizes student-athletes who achieve a 3.0 GPA in the previous fall and/or spring semester.

Lapchick said the study found that while graduation rates are improving, there remains a huge gap between the figures for black and white basketball players.

Other NCAA tournament-bound programs with low freshman graduate rates during the 1996-99 period were Ohio State (10 percent), UNLV (10 percent), Maryland (13 percent), Texas A&M (15 percent), Virginia Tech (17 percent), Gonzaga and Louisville (22 percent), Georgia Tech, Kentucky and Oral Roberts (23 percent), Memphis and North Texas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (25 percent).

Based on the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores from last year, Lapchick said Florida A&M, New Mexico State, and Texas A&M could be subject to loss of basketball scholarships next year.

"I knew the APR was relatively low here when I took this job,'' Pearl said. "I'm committed to changing that.''

The Associated Press contributed to this story.