Tony Passley's departure leaves the Tennessee men's basketball team two available scholarships to offer — provided the Vols take care of business in the classroom.

Passley won't be returning to the team, coach Bruce Pearl confirmed Saturday.

The sophomore forward was dismissed for what Pearl described as "rules violations," although his absence for the past several weeks had previously been attributed to academic issues.

Passley's departure frees up a scholarship. To date, 11 of the 13 available scholarships are committed from 2007-08.

Passley is the fourth departure from the team in a calendar year, joining Damion Harris, Major Wingate and Marques Johnson.

While the NCAA can assess scholarship penalties for poor retention under the Academic Progress Rate formula, Pearl doesn't anticipate any at this time.

"Our APR was bad when we got here (March 2005),'' he said. "It's gotten a little better.

"We should not lose a scholarship if everybody does what they're supposed to do, but we're close. We're definitely close.''

The APR formula calls for scholarship penalties if the team's academic performance is below a set standard. One of the most likely causes for penalties are players who leave before their eligibility is up and who are not in good academic standing.

So far, the baseball team is the only sport at UT to be assessed a scholarship penalty.

Passley redshirted in 2005-06 after transferring from Redlands Community College. This year, he scored 31 points in 115 minutes. He last played on Jan. 31.

He faced drug charges after an arrest in March 2006, pleaded guilty to marijuana possession, was suspended from the team then reinstated.