OLEAN, N.Y. -- The former athletic director at St. Bonaventure University said top-ranking officials at the school knew well in advance that a basketball player lacked the academic credentials to get into the college.

Gothard Lane told the Buffalo News in Friday's editions that he spent months telling school president Robert Wickenheiser and other officials that Jamil Terrell didn't have the academic credentials to take the court this past season.

Athletic department spokesman Steve Mest said interim athletic director Paul Grys would have no comment. A phone call to school administration officials by The Associated Press wasn't immediately returned.

Lane said he first told Wickenheiser last May that Terrell should not be eligible because he did not have an associate's degree from Coastal Georgia Community College. He also said he told William Swan, chairman of the board of trustees, and James Gould, trustee representative to athletics, the same thing last June.

Still, Wickenheiser cleared Terrell to play. Terrell was declared ineligible late in the season and the team was stripped of six conference victories and barred from the postseason. Players voted to boycott their final two games in protest, costing the school more than $120,000 in fines.

The scandal cost Lane his job. Wickenheiser resigned and coach Jan van Breda Kolff was fired last week.

Lane said the university ordered him to remain silent in the weeks after the scandal broke, a situation that he said prevented him from clearing his name.

Gould said the school is trying to move forward and prepare for other possible penalties from the NCAA this summer. The school's quick report and personnel moves, he said, should help lessen some of the punishments.

Terrell averaged 6.9 points in 25 games at St. Bonaventure, and led the team with 31 blocked shots.