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Sweet Redemption

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Here is the untold story of how a secret "kitchen cabinet" of four men

supported Gary Williams, enabling him to overcome personal adversity and

build a big-time college basketball program that reached the pinnacle of

success in 2002 by winning the NCAA Championship. Williams played for

Maryland in the 1960s, but upon returning to the school in 1989 he found the

program in shambles due to the tragic drug overdose of superstar Len Bias

just days after signing with the Boston Celtics, as well as stiff NCAA

penalties for recruiting violations that made attracting high school

standouts nearly impossible for the coach.

Williams tells the story in Sweet Redemption of how he worked tirelessly to

pull the Terrapins from the cellar, both emotionally and on the court.

Eventually the coach lifted the team, led by star guard Juan Dixon, to new

heights. The book, co-written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David A.

Vise, addresses several questions: What gave Williams and the Terps the

backbone, stamina, and drive to overcome enormous obstacles? What were the

ingredients that Williams blended to produce not only a winning team, but

also a successful, respected program? And how did Williams shake off

lingering demons and triumph over the odds? All of these questions and more

are answered in the coach's inside story, Sweet Redemption: How Gary Williams

and 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's

basketball team for 13 years. He was the starting point guard for the Terps

for three years before graduating with a business degree in 1968. He began

coaching a year later as an assistant for the Maryland freshman squad.

Williams coached at the high school level as well as for various college

teams before accepting the Maryland head coaching position in 1989.

David A. Vise has been an award-winning reporter at The Washington Post for

18 years, where he won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize. He has been an avid college

basketball fan even longer. Recently he wrote The New York Times bestseller,

The Bureau and the Mole: The Unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most

Dangerous Spy in FBI History. He is a consultant on the motion picture

version of that book, currently in development after being optioned by Jerry

Bruckheimer Films and Disney's Touchstone Pictures. Vise graduated Magna Cum

Laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and has an MBA from The

Wharton School. He also received the 1992 Distinguished Alumnus award from

University School of Nashville, where he played point guard. He has been

rooting for the Maryland Terrapins for years.