Ventura College basketball star Danny Tavares may have been ineligible when he led the Pirates to the state Final Four last March.

The 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward from Brooklyn, N.Y., was playing his third year of community college basketball, having played at City University of New York's Borough of Manhattan Community College during the 2002-03 season before coming to Ventura for two years.

"Danny Tavares played here in 2002," said Steve Kelly, the Borough of Manhattan athletic director.

That would mean Tavares' 2005-06 season in Ventura would have exhausted his two years of eligibility and his 2006-07 season would have violated Bylaw 1.7 of the California Community College Athletic Association.

"That's news to us," Ventura College men's coach Greg Winslow said Thursday. "I don't know how much I should say, but we don't have anything that shows he went to school there on our end."

The rule, titled "Number of Seasons of Competition," states, "No athlete shall be allowed more than two (2) seasons of collegiate competition in any one sport." Two separate community college athletic sources confirmed the rule is clear: only two years of eligibility.

Tavares averaged 16.8 points, 10 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game last year for the Pirates, who went 27-7 and won their sixth straight Western State Conference title before falling to Antelope Valley in the state semifinals in Fresno.

He played in all 34 of Ventura's games last season.

His 198 blocked shots broke the program's career record.

After two All-State seasons in Ventura, Tavares committed to play for San Diego State in March after also drawing interest from several Pacific-10 Conference schools.

"Danny brings some age and maturity," San Diego State coach Steve Fisher told the San Diego Union-Tribune in April.

Questions about Tavares' past surfaced in June, when the Union-Tribune and North County Times reported that he originally enrolled in the Borough of Manhattan Community College in 2002, thus rendering him ineligible to compete at San Diego State.

"When he enrolled in 2002, his (athletic eligibility) clock started ticking and it's expired," said Fisher in the Union-Tribune. "It's unfortunate, because he's a good kid. It's nobody's fault. He's just not eligible to compete."

At the NCAA Division I level, athletes usually have five years to complete four seasons of athletic participation. To play four seasons at Division II and III levels, athletes are given 10 semesters of full-time enrollment without time restrictions.

Fisher told the Union-Tribune that Ventura College coach Winslow was not aware of Tavares' previous participation. Winslow said last month that Tavares had not played basketball at Borough of Manhattan.

Tavares has since enrolled at CSU Dominguez Hills and is practicing with the team. His girlfriend, former Ventura College player Tina Stetson, said Tavares has applied for a medical redshirt for his 2002-03 season, which would give him two seasons of eligibility with the Toros.

He is listed as a junior on the Toros' official Web site and played 18 minutes and 26 minutes in exhibitions Nov. 1 at UC Santa Barbara and Nov. 3 at Loyola Marymount.

Phone messages left on Tavares' cell phone, Dominguez Hills coach Damaine Powell's office phone and for San Diego State assistant head coach Brian Dutcher were not returned.