Jim Young over at ACC Sports posted an excerpt from Dan Wiederer’s book Blue Streak which is the quasi-unauthorized chronicle of the 2009 Tar Heels. The highlighted chapter covers the Bobby Frasor and Erin Andrews rumors which circled the interwebs in 2009. The rumors that the two had hooked up were false and actually started by some guys trying to get their picture with Andrews on Deadspin. However it did lead to a very interesting “mission” undertaken by Frasor, Tyler Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard and former manager Preston Prescott.

So Frasor, Tyler Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard and former team manager Preston Puckett had to find out: When Andrews was in Chapel Hill, did she ever go out on the town?

“Not really,” she told them. “Most of the time we stay at the Siena and we just end up at the hotel bar after the game to hang out.”

Cool. Noted.

Less than 90 minutes after the final buzzer sounded on the 82-65 defeat of Miami, Frasor, Hansbrough, Ginyard and Puckett had a mission.

They would head home, get ready to go out and head straight to the Siena. No, they had never been there before. And no, Andrews hadn’t extended any sort of invitation for them to join her. But still, the giddiness was bubbling.

The sharpest of outfits were needed. A few extra splashes of cologne, too.

The preparation back at the house was as energized as the Tar Heels’ fast-break attack had been that night.

“Yo, Tyler, you almost ready?” Frasor yelled.

“Yeah,” Hansbrough said.

And then here came college basketball’s reigning National Player of the Year strutting into the hallway all styled up. Wearing a leather trench coat.

“What the hell is this?” Frasor thought.

Hansbrough didn’t even smirk.

Neither did an unamused Ginyard.

“You’re not wearing that,” he told Hansbrough.

Hansbrough just stared back.

“You’re not wearing that,” Ginyard repeated.

Frasor was in hysterics, laughing so hard he had to take a knee. He had no idea whether Hansbrough was serious or kidding around.

No one was sure whether Hansbrough himself even knew.

Hansbrough relented on the trenchcoat opting for the leather jacket instead. Head on over ACC Sports to check out the rest of the story. It is exactly the sort of thing some of us probably did with three of our friends in college. Stuff like this was the essence of being in college whether it was going to the Waffle House at 2 AM or surprising a ESPN sideline reporter at the local hotel bar. The fact you have stories like this speaks volumes about why this team might ranked as one of the most beloved in UNC history. You had these four housemates dressing up to go talk to Erin Andrews at a hotel bar. Danny Green dancing before games. Ty Lawson being a kid off the court and a total stud on it. The list goes on.

That team was special.

Since we are all big junkies for comparing various UNC teams and players the more relevant aspect of this is how the 2009 team was seeded and who they defeated en route to winning this mythical title. Here is a list of the UNC teams involved in this tournament and their seeds.

#2. 2008-09
#3. 1981-82
#4. 1992-93
#7. 2004-05
#12. 1980-81
#16. 1976-77

Certainly this is all debatable to the nth degree but putting 2009 ahead of 1982 and 1993 ahead of 2005 does not quite seem right. Then again I have my own rankings of UNC teams so I might be biased.  Seedings are one thing, actual results are another which is where this really gets dicey. During the tournament the 2009 team faced the 1982 team and won 3-1.

Among UNC fans the 1982 ranks as “the” team of the modern era. Prior to the 2009 season I laid out what I thought would necessary for that team to surpass 1982. It was something along the lines of two or fewer losses, win the ACC regular season and tournament championships as well as the national title. 2009 got two of four right and four losses. 2008 had they won the title would have been on the money. Given the differing levels of parity and styles of the games in the respected eras it probably makes more sense to discuss personnel. Turning the debate in that directions leaves you one question: How does 2009 stop James Worthy, Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins? The answer is I don’t think they could. The 2009 was not a great defensive team. Their offense was incredible and on the basis of sheer firepower and pace did they overwhelm teams. I am not sure that would work vs 1982. When you start looking at matchups you can certainly give 2009 the nod at PG(Ty Lawson over Jimmy Black) and SF(Danny Green over Matt Doherty.) Beyond that I think 1982 wins, yes even with Tyler Hansbrough vs Perkins. Hansbrough, as good as he was, often had trouble with athletic big men. Perkins had tremendous length and would have trouble Hansbrough in the post. Jordan vs Wayne Ellington would be an interesting matchup though I think Jordan gets the nod there. At the four…please…Deon Thompson vs James Worthy? Worthy would eat Thompson for lunch, spit him out and them eat him again for dinner. In fact that matchup alone sort of tips the scales in a massive way. Lawson would certainly best Black but I am not sure it would be enough to change the outcome.

The only X factor is the depth of the 2009 team over the 1982 squad. Ed Davis would change the matchups, possibly in favor of 2009 with Ed Davis matching up with Perkins and Hansbrough possibly guarding Worthy. Hansbrough was not a great post defender but was better guarding players off the dribble and away from the basket. The depth in general would help 2009 especially if they forced the pace. Unfortunately this is where the difference in eras comes into play. The 1982 team played without a shot clock and a shorter three point line in ACC play only no three pointer.  It is tough to speculate how the 1982 team would play with a 35 second shot clock and a 20’9″ three point line. The former pushed the pace where the latter changes the spacing and defense. In the reverse scenario the 2009 would still play up-tempo but not having a three point line might hurt.

Of course no analysis would be complete without a look at the coaching. Even Roy Williams would agree that Dean Smith would totally own him here. Roy is not a bad game coach but Dean was a master. I would put the money on Dean in that matchup.

Aside from the personnel I would point out that the 1982 team went 4-1 against teams with major NBA talent on them. They beat #2 Kentucky, Virginia with Ralph Sampson twice, Houston with Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon and Georgetown with Patrick Ewing. They also only lost two games all season long to Virginia on the road and vs Wake Forest in a game Sam Perkins missed. The 2009 was prone to lapses as losses to Boston College and Maryland proved. For me that is the proof in the proverbial pudding.

Schedule for tonight:

#2 Ohio St vs #6 Tennessee, 7:07 PM
#3 Baylor vs #10 St. Mary’s, 7:27 PM
#5 Michigan St vs #9 Northern Iowa, 9:37 PM
#1 Duke vs #4 Purdue, 9:57 PM

Go Boilermakers!

Comments if your have ‘em.

The silver lining? It is the NCAA Tournament and despite the copious amounts of chalk being tossed about out there, the parity(and weakness) of this bracket has never been more stark. There has been far too much in the way of inexplicable results this season to think we are going to see a repeat of 2008 when four very good #1 seeds showed up in San Antonio. I would be shocked if we did not see massive upsets across the board making everyone’s office pool look like Gettysburg circa July 4th, 1863. In other words it could get messy out there. Speaking of which, if you have not filled out a bracket yet, you still have time to hit the THF Tournament Pick ‘Em.

So as a final goodbye to the reign of the 2009 Tar Heels I offer this parade of You Tube videos after the jump.

Now, which is actually sadder? Being some random fan who makes a stupid bet or being two nationally televised basketball analysts who make the same pick in front of millions of people on the basis of some half baked sentimental idea of destiny?

Dan Wiederer of the Fayetteville Observer is writing a book entitled Blue Streak about UNC’s 2009 national championship team due for release early this year.  Wiederer was interviewed this morning by Adam Gold and Joe Ovies on 620 the Buzz. Basically the book will be a combination of Fayetteville Observer articles and extensive interviews done this past summer. Wiederer has excerpts from the book at his website here which also includes multiple quotes such as these:

“It’s hard to explain. But it’s like those guys always carried themselves with this swagger. They were cocky. The way they handled themselves didn’t quite fit with how they played. Maybe if you’re winning and successful, you can have that edge and act like you’re something. But they were struggling to make the NIT. Every year before the season you’d hear them talking about how good they’re going to be. And every year it’s the same thing. They’re not that good. They win a couple games early. And then they get into the ACC and they can’t buy a win.”

— Bobby Frasor, a guard on the 2008-09 team, on why the Tar Heels reveled in beating N.C. State almost as much as they enjoyed beating chief rival Duke

“Their mission the whole postseason was to go out and hit people right between the eyes and end the game within 5-7 minutes. Put them in shock. Put them in total shock. The other team, no matter what they did and no matter how much preparation they had done, they had no idea how fast Ty really was or how athletic Tyler Hansbrough really was or how many big 3s Wayne could hit or all the things Danny could do. They had no idea how deadly it was until they actually saw it. Michigan State may have thought, ‘Well, we’ve seen this before and we’re used to it.’ No. They hadn’t seen us in four months.”

— Joe Holladay, UNC assistant coach, discussing the Heels’ NCAA tournament mindset

Except for the LSU game it was exactly like that and so much fun to watch. Ah the memories. Also, Frasor cutting the Pack deep there which seems a tad out of character there but spot on.

I am going to go out on a limb and say this book might be a far more interesting read than the standard Adam Lucas fare. Books like One Fantastic Ride are almost like official press releases from the school. Yes, it is behind the scenes but it is controlled to a point.  Of course no one is saying this is not. All interviews and material would have been on the record and I am sure some vetting of the stories went on. However, based on the tone of the excerpts I think this book might be a little more raw in its presentation.  In other words you might see some things which may cast some negative light on UNC players whereas the Lucas books rein that kind of material in. For example, Tyler Hansbrough’s competitive nature is discussed and shown how far it went, even to video games.  There are also excerpts on Danny Green’s father and his verbal diarrhea during the summer of 2008.

The other interesting part of this is the fact Wiederer has been working on this book while at the same time seemingly going out of his way to provoke UNC and Steve Krischner during FanGate. If you recall, Wiederer kicked off the media coverage of Roy Williams’ having a Presybterian fan removed with this blog post.  In that post Wiederer called Roy’s reaction a “freak out” and out of the blue characterizes Kirschner’s response as “predictable Tar Heel spin.” That line in particular drew Kirschner’s ire who emailed Wiederer.  An apology of sorts was subsequently posted.  At the time I joked that Kirschner threatened to pull Wiederer’s media credentials over it to the point Wiederer felt the need to dial it back. I had no idea at the time this book was in the works and you have to wonder if it came up in the conversation.  Mind you not with Kirschner threatening the book in any way but rather reminding Wiederer how much cooperation UNC gave as it related to the book.  Whatever the case, it seems odd that a writer who is working on a book in which he has interviewed multiple members of the school basketball program would be this brazen over one incident.  That is unless Wiederer simply felt comfortable he thought he could get away with it.

At any rate, after reading the excerpts and hearing Wiederer’s  interview this morning the book promises to have plenty of interesting stories.  Wiederer told Gold that one reason there are so many great tales is these guys were really close, together for three years(some of them four) and off the court they were just like any group of guys in college doing what college kids do. The difference between them and everyone else is they were the #1 basketball team in the nation.

Those two plays effectively buried the Tigers and UNC went on to a title.

In the game versus Duke at Hansbrough Indoor Stadium, you could take almost any one of Lawson’s plays in that one.

Tyler Hansbrough broke Phil Ford’s scoring mark to become UNC’s all time leading scorer.

And not to be too basketball centric here, you had Kendric Burney’s three INT day versus Miami which included this improbable run back for a TD.

All great plays but the best of the year is Ty Lawson’s game winner versus Florida St. Not only was this game hugely important but it was an incredible play on a variety of levels. For one, taking the ball the length of the court then shooting a runner from three is a impressive play to begin with. Secondly, it illustrates the complete ineptitude of Leonard Hamilton as a coach. Why you would allow the fastest player in college basketball to get the ball cleanly is beyond belief. Nevertheless, the Heels will take it.

Okay 2010 Heels, your title defense begins now.

As a result of this change Wayne Ellington and Donald Williams will have their #22 and #21 honored since both were Final Four MOPs. Tyler Hansbrough will have his retired at some point the coming season and Ty Lawson will join Ellington and Williams among the honored jersey for being named first team All American.

Roy Williams mentioned, back when Lawson was named All-American, that he though Lawson would have been honored anyway since he was an ACC POY. Roy also indicated he might investigate a change in the qualifications. Apparently they went through with it.  In many ways we are a looking at a pair of unique situations.  Usually of a player is either a Final Four MOP or ACC  Player of the Year, they end up covering the qualifications for an honored jersey by being an All-American.  That was not the case with Ellington or Williams whose perimeter shooting in both title runs was a huge key to winning the title.