COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME : Webber Says He Didn’t Know : Wolverines: Forward says he wouldn’t have called a timeout if he had been aware that team had none left.

NEW ORLEANS —  In the end, after the 23 points and 11 rebounds, after the Fab Five hype and talk of the NBA, Michigan’s Chris Webber was merely a 20-year-old college sophomore trying to thread his way down a basketball court set in the middle of a stadium filled with 64,151.

He was confused.

“You have 60,000 people yelling,” Jalen Rose said. “You look up at the clock. You see 11 seconds left. Your instinct is to call time out, set up a play.”

The Michigan point guard shrugged.

“Things happen. So be it.”

The Wolverines were beaten by North Carolina, 77-71, Monday night in the national championship game, the second year in a row they have lost on the last night of the season. And they lost in a way that will not soon be forgotten--by Webber, their 6-foot-9 power forward, calling a timeout that couldn’t be called.

Webber rebounded a missed free throw by North Carolina’s Pat Sullivan, appeared to travel, but there was no call, so he started up court. Eleven seconds remained. North Carolina led, 73-71.

Webber got the ball deep into Michigan’s end and called time out, apparently not realizing that the Wolverines had used their last timeout with 46 seconds left.

As a result of the error, Michigan was assessed a technical foul. Donald Williams made the two free throws for North Carolina, clinching the title for the Tar Heels.

Later, Webber couldn’t explain what he had been thinking when he called the timeout. He spoke slowly, quietly.

What happened?

“I don’t remember. I just called a timeout, and we didn’t have a timeout. That probably cost us the game.”

You didn’t know Michigan had no timeouts remaining?

“If I knew we didn’t have any timeouts left, then I wouldn’t have called one.”

What were you thinking?

“There were 20 seconds left. I started to dribble the ball. We were down by two. The ball was on our side of the court. I picked up the dribble, called timeout. And I cost our team the game.”

As reporters questioned Juwan Howard, the only other Michigan player at the news conference, Webber buried his head in his hands. When his obligation was finished, he left the Superdome without returning to the Wolverines’ dressing area, where he would have faced more reporters.

Bruce Madej, Michigan’s assistant athletic director for media relations, said that Webber, distraught after the game, did not want to make the NCAA-mandated appearance at the news conference, but went at the urging of Madej and Perry Watson, a Michigan assistant coach.

“Let’s face it, Chris did not want to go,” Madej said. “I told him, ‘That’s the only way you can answer all the questions.’ Perry said the same thing. So he went in, and we told him we’d try to help him (evade the media) after that.”

Webber’s teammates were sympathetic.

“It was a fluke situation,” forward James Voskuil said. “Any one of us could have done it. In a normal situation, a 6-9, 250-pound guy gets the ball at half court, he usually calls a timeout to set up a play. It was just a miscommunication and a fluke.”

Rose, Webber’s closest friend on the team, said: “You can’t blame him (for the loss). It takes 40 minutes to win or lose a ball game. You can’t hang your hat on that.”

According to Rose and other Michigan players, the Wolverine coaches had spoken of using the last timeout when the team huddled with 46 seconds remaining.

As Webber indicated that he wanted a timeout after Sullivan’s missed free throw, Michigan players on the bench tried to warn him of the problem.

“Guys were saying, ‘No timeouts! No timeouts!”’ Voskuil said. “(Webber) must have thought they were saying, ‘Timeout! Timeout!’ Just a miscommunication.”

Rose, running up court, grabbed his head when he saw what was happening.

“At first, I was hoping the refs didn’t see (Webber’s signal),” he said. “But the ref saw it and called the technical.”

When the game had ended, Rose took one last shot at the basket. Fittingly, the ball banged off the rim.

“Losing on this kind of note makes you want to drive and strive to be better,” he said. “We will be back next year. We will be ready win.”