Stoudamire Declared Ineligible at Arizona : College basketball: He and Davis watch as Wildcats lose to Arizona State in double overtime. Appeal will be made.

Damon Stoudamire, co-player of the year in the Pacific 10, and a teammate were declared ineligible Saturday for Arizona’s regular-season finale against Arizona State because of possible NCAA rules violations.

No. 18 Arizona State took advantage of their absence--and that of injured center Joseph Blair--to win in Tucson for the first time in 12 years, 103-98, in double overtime.

Jim Livengood, Arizona’s athletic director, said the university acted after being notified Tuesday of NCAA allegations that Stoudamire and Ben Davis received possible extra benefits.

Livengood said he believed that neither player had done anything improper, that Arizona’s investigation was continuing and that an appeal to the NCAA’s committee on eligibility would be made Monday to have both players eligible for postseason play.

“There is a tremendous outstanding belief that these student-athletes will have every opportunity to have that eligibility restored,” he said.

Livengood said he had been in contact with Cedric Dempsey, the NCAA’s executive director and Livengood’s predecessor as Arizona’s athletic director, because an NCAA rule requires that the organization’s basketball tournament selection committee be notified of any significant developments concerning a tournament-eligible team.

Stoudamire, a 5-foot-10 point guard, helped take Arizona to the Final Four last year. The Wildcats were expected to receive a high seeding, possibly a No. 2 or No. 3, in this year’s tournament pairings to be announced today, though what impact the question of the players’ eligibility will have on that is unsure.

Livengood said the university’s investigation indicated that Davis had accepted a pair of basketball shoes during a pickup game last summer with Kebu Stewart, a Nevada Las Vegas player and Davis’ friend. Stewart has been suspended from UNLV because of allegations that he accepted shoes from an agent.

The incident could be construed as Davis having received preferential treatment, an NCAA violation.

Sources said Stoudamire, a preseason All-American, was under investigation because of the possibility his father might have accepted an airline ticket from agent Steve Feldman of Newport Beach.

There is a wider NCAA investigation into the activities of Feldman, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday.

The newspaper quoted a source “close to the investigation” as saying the NCAA obtained records indicating Feldman bought a plane ticket for Willie Stoudamire last month from his home in Portland to Los Angeles, where the Wildcats played against UCLA and USC.

Under NCAA rules, an athlete can be ruled ineligible if he or a relative accepts transportation or other benefits from an agent.

The Chronicle said Willie Stoudamire said he had no dealings with Feldman, didn’t know him and had received no plane ticket from him.

Livengood made certain that Damon Stoudamire was separated from the alleged incident Saturday.

“I need to make this very clear and very distinct,” Livengood said. “Damon has done nothing wrong. Damon knows nothing of what has transpired, and Damon has had no part in that.”

The players were declared ineligible before the No. 12 Wildcats’ last conference game of the year.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson said, “In the 40 years I’ve been in basketball, this is the greatest injustice that I’ve ever seen.

“I’ve never met a greater kid than Damon. . . . I can say without a doubt that he is the most honest young man I have ever met.”

Stoudamire leads the Pac-10 in scoring (23 points) and assists (7.4), is Arizona’s No. 4 all-time scorer with 1,831 points. He was co-player of the year with UCLA’s Ed O’Bannon.

Davis is a backup center averaging 9.9 points who had been expected to start against Arizona State because of Blair’s injury.

Livengood said the NCAA and Pac-10 do not declare student-athletes ineligible, acting instead only in an advisory capacity.