COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME : New Ending Is Required : Final: Webber says Michigan needs to beat North Carolina to make up for last year’s loss to Duke.

NEW ORLEANS — It is no accident that Michigan forward Chris Webber has yet to view a videotape of last season’s loss to Duke in the NCAA championship game. The very thought of the defeat turns Webber sullen, as if the Wolverines’ failure to win a title as freshmen was his fault and no one else’s.

“The feeling of last year has been with me for 365 days,” he said. “I have never watched that game since. I do not know what happened in the second half. We were up one, I know, and then . . .

“That was the worst experience of my life, and I do not want to encounter that again.”

And there you have it: The Statement. The Promise.

Webber is serious about this stuff. So determined is he to leave New Orleans with a victory against North Carolina in tonight’s NCAA championship game at the Superdome, that he has resorted to superstition.

Under his pillow Sunday evening was the 1989 Final Four title ring won by Wolverine guard Rob Pelinka, the only remaining active member of that Wolverine team.

“Maybe the tooth fairy will come,” he was told.

“No,” Webber said, “maybe the basketball fairy will come.”

Considering how Michigan (31-4) has survived two overtime tournament games against UCLA and Kentucky and two scares from George Washington and Temple, to say nothing of the much-publicized comments of Hall of Famer Bill Walton and the icy postgame accusations of Temple Coach John Chaney, it might be argued that the basketball fairy is a close personal friend of the Wolverines.

But such silliness goes only so far. What really drives Webber is the mention of last year’s 20-point loss to the Blue Devils, who won a second consecutive championship at the Wolverines’ expense. A ring of his own will never erase those memories, but it will help. A lot.

“That was the lowest point of my life,” Webber said of the loss to Duke.

And this from Michigan guard Jalen Rose: “It was something you felt you never wanted to relive. We felt we had worked so hard to get to that point in the season. We knew we had a great run and we knew we had a great season. At the same time, we don’t plan on feeling that way (tonight).”

Vindication is no longer an incentive. At least, it shouldn’t be against North Carolina (33-4). The Wolverines quieted even their most vocal critics with their overtime victory against Kentucky in Saturday’s semifinal. Down by as many as four points in the extra period, Michigan simply overpowered the Wildcats in the closing minutes.

Afterward, Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino paid homage to the Wolverines, a gesture not lost on Michigan Coach Steve Fisher.

“Rick Pitino made some positive and complimentary statements about us,” Fisher said. “We think they’re true.”

And even if they weren’t, North Carolina Coach Dean Smith suggested Sunday that perhaps Michigan’s view of itself as the tortured one had grown a bit stale.

“Everyone knows that the ‘We-Get-No-Respect’ angle is a tremendous motivating factor,” Smith said. “Whether that’s true, they have plenty of respect from us. We aren’t saying that.”

Freed from the weight of expectations and criticisms, the Wolverines acted Sunday as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Gone were the scowls of a week ago, replaced instead by smirks and laughter. At one point, Rose mocked Fisher’s receding hairline and chided his coach for a verbal double standard.

“He curses a lot more in practice than he does up here,” Rose said.

Fisher did his part. He said he might shave his head if the Wolverines beat North Carolina. And he deftly deflected a question concerning the failed recruitment of center Eric Montross, who chose the Tar Heels over Michigan and Indiana.

“We got his sister,” he said. “She’s there.”

Meanwhile, North Carolina got the 7-foot, 270-pound Montross, who is the starting point for all discussions concerning the Tar Heels. He leads North Carolina in scoring (15.8-point average), in field-goal percentage (.620), in blocked shots (46) and in intimidation.

“We’ve been beaten by Duke, by Indiana and by Iowa, but North Carolina is the best team we’ve played,” Webber said. “It’s going to be very brutal. Eric Montross is a big man. He’s a monster. Monster Mash (Kentucky’s Jamal Mashburn) is a great player, but Monster Montross is a big player. I remember after that game how tired I was. We didn’t even celebrate. We just went back and went to sleep.”

The game in question was Michigan’s 79-78 victory over North Carolina last Dec. 29 in Honolulu. Webber scored 27 points that night, Montross 14. Still, it took a last-second shot by Rose to give the Wolverines the victory.

Four months later, the game itself doesn’t seem that important. But remember this:

--Michigan forward Ray Jackson played only briefly that night before being injured. Long since recovered, Jackson has returned to the Michigan starting lineup and made the Wolverines one of the most feared rebounding teams in the country.

--North Carolina swingman Henrik Rodl was a starter in December. Since then, Rodl has become the Tar Heels’ sixth man and Donald Williams has taken his place in the starting five.

--Tar Heel power forward George Lynch missed 13 of 18 shots, but he grabbed 16 rebounds, eight of them off the offensive boards.

--North Carolina was an offensive mess in December. It wasn’t until February, Smith said, that his team began to come together.

History aside, tonight’s game will provide Webber with one of two things: an appointment with a jeweler or a new scowl.