DALLAS -- Patrick Dennehy's father claims a Baylor coach helped arranged to pay for the missing basketball player's education and living expenses when the player agreed to give up his scholarship to another player last year.

Patrick Dennehy Sr. said in a story in the online edition of The Dallas Morning News Tuesday night that his son told him a coach promised to "take care of"' him after he transferred last summer from New Mexico to Baylor.

Baylor athletic officials disputed the claim. Such extra benefits could be a violation of NCAA rules.

"Our coaches claim that the story is false," said Baylor spokesman Scott Stricklin, who said coach Dave Bliss and his staff wouldn't comment.

Stricklin said the school was aware of the allegations before Tuesday and had begun an inquiry independent of the athletic department.

"We take matters of NCAA compliance very seriously," Stricklin said. "Any time we get a hint of anything along these lines, we research it with all due diligence. Thus far, we've found nothing to indicate there's any validity to it."

An NCAA spokesman said the organization, as is its policy, would neither confirm nor deny whether it was investigating the Baylor program.

Dennehy Sr., speaking to the newspaper by phone from his home in Tacoma, Wash., also said his son's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, informed him that she has talked to the NCAA staff about the possibility that a coach helped his son buy an automobile.

"I can't talk about any of that. I'm not going to confirm or add anything. I can't talk about that," De La Rosa told the newspaper.

The younger Dennehy has been missing since mid-June. Former teammate Carlton Dotson has been charged with murder, accused of shooting him in Waco. Police haven't found Dennehy's body.

After transferring from New Mexico, Dennehy had to sit out last season because of NCAA transfer rules. If he wasn't on scholarship, he would have been responsible for tuition and other expenses at the private school.

Dennehy Sr., who claimed to be frustrated with the school because of what he called a lack of communication about his son's disappearance, said Tuesday that his son told him that the Baylor coaching staff asked him to give up his athletic scholarship for 2002-03 so that it could be used by a teammate.

When he pressed his son to explain how the school's tuition would be paid, Dennehy said his son told him an assistant coach who knew his son well told him "they will take care of me."

Dennehy's mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian Brabazon of Carson City, Nev., have said that they couldn't pay his tuition, living expenses and car payments.

Valorie Brabazon said that soon after her son's arrival in Waco last year he asked her to fill out forms to help him apply for financial aid. She said the family learned later that the application was rejected because their income was too high.

She said that her son ultimately told her the school had helped him arrange to get tuition money and that she assumed it came from grants and loans.