num_pages: 250
description: Here is the untold story of how a secret "kitchen cabinet" of four mensupported Gary Williams, enabling him to overcome personal adversity andbuild a big-time college basketball program that reached the pinnacle ofsuccess in 2002 by winning the NCAA Championship. Williams played forMaryland in the 1960s, but upon returning to the school in 1989 he found theprogram in shambles due to the tragic drug overdose of superstar Len Biasjust days after signing with the Boston Celtics, as well as stiff NCAApenalties for recruiting violations that made attracting high schoolstandouts nearly impossible for the coach.Williams tells the story in Sweet Redemption of how he worked tirelessly topull the Terrapins from the cellar, both emotionally and on the court.Eventually the coach lifted the team, led by star guard Juan Dixon, to newheights. The book, co-written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David A.Vise, addresses several questions: What gave Williams and the Terps thebackbone, stamina, and drive to overcome enormous obstacles? What were theingredients that Williams blended to produce not only a winning team, butalso a successful, respected program? And how did Williams shake offlingering demons and triumph over the odds? All of these questions and moreare answered in the coach's inside story, Sweet Redemption: How Gary Williamsand Maryland Beat Death and Despair to Win the NCAA Basketball Championship.AUTHOR BIO: Gary Williams has been the head coach of the University of Maryland men'sbasketball team for 13 years. He was the starting point guard for the Terpsfor three years before graduating with a business degree in 1968. He begancoaching a year later as an assistant for the Maryland freshman squad.Williams coached at the high school level as well as for various collegeteams before accepting the Maryland head coaching position in 1989.David A. Vise has been an award-winning reporter at The Washington Post for18 years, where he won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. He has been an avid collegebasketball fan even longer. Recently he wrote The New York Times bestseller,The Bureau and the Mole: The Unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the MostDangerous Spy in FBI History. He is a consultant on the motion pictureversion of that book, currently in development after being optioned by JerryBruckheimer Films and Disney's Touchstone Pictures. Vise graduated Magna CumLaude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and has an MBA from TheWharton School. He also received the 1992 Distinguished Alumnus award fromUniversity School of Nashville, where he played point guard. He has beenrooting for the Maryland Terrapins for years.
language: English
title: Sweet Redemption
titlecomplete: Sweet Redemption
genres: Sports
ratings_count: 34
publisher: Sports Publishing LLC