California Declares Fowlkes Ineligible : College basketball: Action comes just before former agent Casey says he gave last season’s Pac-10 freshman of the year $1,800 to help buy a car.

On the day the University of California declared basketball star Tremaine Fowlkes ineligible, former sports agent James Casey told The Times that he gave Fowlkes $1,800 last March toward the purchase of a Chevy Blazer.

Casey, who had previously denied any involvement, said he will tell Cal officials today that he gave Fowlkes the money for the automobile, which Fowlkes bought for $10,800.

After a lengthy and complicated investigation, Cal rendered Fowlkes ineligible on Thursday for his alleged involvement with Casey, though Fowlkes might still play this season. The school plans to petition the NCAA to reinstate Fowlkes, who was the Pacific 10 Conference freshman of the year last season. Traditionally, the NCAA has reinstated players in similar circumstances, but could impose sanctions, possibly making Fowlkes sit out some games.

Fowlkes, who has denied involvement with Casey, could not be reached.

Under NCAA rules, a college athlete can be declared ineligible if found to have accepted money or favors from an agent. A school can apply to reinstate the player once the benefit is repaid. Fowlkes no longer has the Chevy Blazer.

Casey was a registered NBA player agent from 1990 to ’93 and says he has no plans to become an agent again. He says he is also not a Cal booster. But the NCAA could construe Casey’s alleged actions as enticement in case he becomes an agent again.

“We have ruled Tremaine ineligible based on information we discovered during a monthlong probe, but we’re also hopeful that the petition for reinstatement will be viewed favorably,” said John Kasser, Cal’s athletic director.

Cal officials have been trying to determine how Fowlkes, a sophomore from Los Angeles, came into possession of two cars since last spring. Fowlkes has said the cars were provided by a family friend.

Initially, Casey was cleared by the school of any involvement, but then the school learned of another car, the Chevy Blazer, that Fowlkes had driven in the spring.

The investigation intensified recently when the salesman who sold Fowlkes the Chevy Blazer linked him with Casey. L.P. Simmons, a salesman for Harbor Chevrolet in Long Beach, told Pac-10 and Cal officials that a man he identified as Casey accompanied Fowlkes to the dealership in March and paid thousands in cash toward the purchase of the Blazer.

But Casey said he gave Fowlkes only $1,800. “Tremaine decided to pay the car off without having any payments, and asked me to help him out by loaning him the rest of the money,” Casey said. “He told me it would take $1,800, and so we went to the bank and I gave him the money and he deposited it in his account and wrote a check. He already had $9,000. I wasn’t in the room [at the dealership] when he made the transaction, I was in the lobby.”

Calls from The Times to Simmons at Harbor Chevrolet were referred to attorney Brian Huben. “Harbor Chevrolet has cooperated and will continue to cooperate with the investigation by Cal and the Pac-10,” Huben said.

Casey said he knows Fowlkes because Fowlkes’ father, Ron, was his physical education teacher and worked security at Los Angeles High in the early 1970s. He also knows Fowlkes through Cal teammate Jelani Gardner, whom Casey considers as a nephew. Fowlkes went to Crenshaw High and Gardner to St. John Bosco.

“I feel bad because I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” Casey said. “I am not an agent and have no plans to be one. I have known Tremaine since he was in the sixth grade.

“I did it because I respect Ron Fowlkes so much, he kept me in line when I was in school.”

It was Ron Fowlkes, though, who called Cal basketball Coach Todd Bozeman and the NCAA to alert them that Casey might be soliciting his son. He also had a meeting with Casey to discuss his concerns.

After Bozeman talked with Ron Fowlkes, he notified Kasser, Cal’s athletic director. By then, Fowlkes was driving a Ford Explorer that he said was temporarily loaned to him by a friend’s brother, Gregory Gaspard.

Fowlkes had claimed that he put up the $1,800 for the Blazer and his mother and Gaspard provided the remaining $9,000. But shortly after Fowlkes bought the Blazer, it developed mechanical problems and he gave the the car to Gaspard, according to Gaspard and Casey’s attorney, Al Ross.

“Neither Tremaine’s mother nor Gregory know I helped buy the car,” Casey said. “The only people who know it are me and Tremaine.”