Williams, the men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas (1988–2003) and at the University of North Carolina (2003–present), describes his personal and professional path to a Hall of Fame coaching career and two national championships. Ignored by his abusive, drunken father and raised primarily by a cash-strapped, saintly single mother, Williams paid for his college education at UNC by officiating intramural sports. When Dean Smith, that school's legendary basketball coach, offered Williams a low-paying job on his coaching staff, Williams accepted and sold calendars and delivered videotapes to TV stations to feed his family. As a head coach, Williams's dedication extends to landing recruits and running organized, thorough practices. And he's done all this while maintaining a cohesive family life. (He's married to his college sweetheart.) Well-intentioned and upbeat, the book treads the familiar ground of glossy, inspirational sports biographies. Williams recalls passionate speeches, great players (i.e., Michael Jordan, James Worthy) and various anecdotes from the coaching life, but never delivers consistent insight on the workings of a successful coach at two legendary sports programs. However, the book is redeemed by Williams's genial (and borderline hokey) tone and the forthright revelations of his tumultuous childhood and early days coaching in high school and college. 16-page photo insert. (Nov.)

A Hall of Fame college-basketball coach chronicles his rise from poor son of an alcoholic father to winner of two national championships at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina. It's difficult to take seriously a man who habitually eschews curse words in favor of epithets like "dadgum," so it's fortunate that Williams has built up serious credibility during his distinguished career as the head coach at UNC and the University of Kansas. Williams' aw-shucks demeanor masks the inner fury of an intense competitor, a man so driven to win that he invents new competitions just to give himself another chance at victory. A near-perfect embodiment of the American Dream, he endured a hardscrabble youth dominated by a violent father-who ultimately abandoned the family-before climbing down out of a family tree filled with far more scoundrels than scholars. The scrappy Williams overcame those inherent disadvantages and carved out a niche for himself as a junior-varsity player at UNC, foregoing varsity scholarships at smaller schools, before giving up his playing career to focus on coaching. While on-court emotion and intensity account for much of his success, these attributes sometimes overpower the narrative. Williams' unrelenting desire to convey his earnest belief in hard work and love for his family, friends and players (Tyler Hansbrough in particular) is as cloying as it is compelling-he opens by recalling bouts of insomnia prior to the 2009 season brought about because he so desperately wanted Hansbrough to win a championship in his senior season. Still, the legions of Carolina fans will relish stories-including the recruitment of Michael Jordan-from Williams' days as an assistantunder legendary coach Dean Smith; college-basketball fans will admire his tenaciousness; and Kansas fans may finally forgive ol' Roy for leaving (well, maybe not). Williams coaches far better than he writes, but he does spin a good yarn. First printing of 150,000

“Hard Work is a successful coach’s memoir not because it provides a blueprint for success but because it reveals the humiliations and insecurities that have stoked Williams’ competitive fire.” —Will Blythe, The Raleigh News and Observer



“A star coach tells his inspiring tale . . . by the end of this engaging tale, you’ll realize why Williams is an unparalleled recruiter . . . He works as hard as anyone, and he knows how to tell a good story.” —Sports Illustrated

“Hard Work is a successful coach’s memoir not because it provides a blueprint for success but because it reveals the humiliations and insecurities that have stoked Williams’ competitive fire.” —Will Blythe, The Raleigh News and Observer

"If Roy Williams has a secret it is that he is the same person now that he was when I first met him as Dean Smith's No. 3 assistant many, many years ago. This book is a clear reflection of that man—hard working but loyal, dogged, self-deprecating, and, at his core, one of the world's truly good people." —John Feinstein

"A near perfect embodiment of the American Dream."—Kirkus Reviews

This memoir of University of North Carolina coach Roy Williams is far more than a basketball book. He traces his story from the poverty of his youth to the pinnacle of collegiate success, multiple NCAA basketball championships. The story is classic Southern Appalachian storytelling, reminiscent of the work of Rick Bragg. To satisfy the basketball fans, there’s lots of inside material on stars such as Michael Jordan. And the author's self-examination includes some of his shortcomings. Alan Winter narrates with enough of a drawl to make the account realistic but not so much that it makes understanding difficult. His pacing is easygoing and his tone is conversational, a style that makes the book speed along surprisingly quickly. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine