NEW YORK -- Former St. Bonaventure basketball coach Jan van Breda Kolff began fighting to restore his reputation Tuesday, accusing the school of keeping him in the dark about a player's eligibility problems.

The ex-coach also insisted he tried to dissuade his players from boycotting their final two games, a decision that brought widespread ridicule to the team and the school.

"I just said, 'Your responsibility as a player is to play these games.' They said, 'Well, we just have a hard time putting on a uniform and representing the university right now,' " he said during a news conference at Mickey Mantle's restaurant in Manhattan.

Van Breda Kolff held a similar gathering later Tuesday in Buffalo, about 70 miles north of Olean, where St. Bonaventure is located.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the program was punished by the Atlantic 10 Conference in early March, van Breda Kolff said St. Bonaventure wrongfully fired him. He said seven school officials above him knew that center Jamil Terrell was academically ineligible, but he didn't find out until it was too late.

"Had I known what all seven of these university officials knew in June 2002, I would most certainly have insisted on receiving a ruling from the NCAA as to the eligibility," van Breda Kolff said.

Two of those seven -- school president Robert Wickenheiser and athletic director Gothard Lane -- resigned.

Van Breda Kolff was fired with four years left on his contract, worth about $900,500. Asked whether a lawsuit would be filed against St. Bonaventure, van Breda Kolff's lawyer, Lew Conner, said: "We'll figure all that out. But if they don't pay him, you bet ya."

In a statement, the university stood by the findings of a special committee that determined the coach had violated NCAA rules and the terms of his contract.

"The university has admitted its mistakes and apologized, and the coach hasn't," school spokesman David P. Ferguson said.

In presenting an outline of events, van Breda Kolff said he was left out of the loop in the decision regarding Terrell's eligibility.

He said he had no knowledge of a letter, dated June 12, 2002, Lane received from the school's NCAA compliance officer, Barbara Hick (now Barbara Questa), warning that Terrell was not eligible to play because the welding certificate he earned at Coastal Georgia Community College was not sufficient for him to transfer.

Wickenheiser later cleared Terrell to play.

Van Breda Kolff acknowledged there was tension between him and Hick over previous eligibility questions, and that the two hardly spoke. He added that he and Hick should have made amends.

"In retrospect, somebody had to step forward," van Breda Kolff said. "That didn't happen. I'm sorry it didn't."

Van Breda Kolff said he and his players were stunned when informed that the A-10 had stripped them of six league victories and banned them from the conference tournament.

"My seniors started to cry, and they were upset," van Breda Kolff said. "They said this is ridiculous, and they were obviously very taken aback, as I was. I felt betrayed, as they did, by people that made decisions unbeknownst to me."

He said Hick then lied to Terrell by telling him that the coaches had known about his ineligibility all along. Terrell informed his teammates, who decided to boycott the final two games.

Ferguson said Hick was considered the best compliance officer in the conference, and the review committee found that she did nothing improper.

In Buffalo, van Breda Kolff said he was upset that his integrity was placed in question.

"I'm no longer a basketball coach and now people have questioned my integrity," he said. "Yeah, it's been a very tough time. Can I restore that? ... Hopefully, in time I will be able to move on and do the things that I love."

Conner questioned why William Swan, chairman of the university's board of trustees, didn't directly step in last June when Lane first raised doubts about Terrell's eligibility.

"It's my opinion that Bill Swan is one of the really most culpable people," Conner said.

Swan has previously said that he felt the matter closed when Wickenheiser, in an e-mail to Lane, backed Terrell's eligibility.