It appears so.
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.