Blue Heaven - Books about UNC basketball let fans in on the game plan

LIGHT BLUE REIGN: HOW A CITY SLICKER, A QUIET KANSAN, AND A MOUNTAIN MAN BUILT COLLEGE BASKETBALL'S LONGEST-LASTING DYNASTY. By Art Chansky. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press. 355 pages. $26.99.

HARD WORK: A LIFE ON AND OFF THE COURT. By Roy Williams with Tim Crothers. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 286 pages. $24.95

If you have a Tar Heel fan on your gift list -- and around here, chances of that are good -- two recent books are well-timed for holiday giving.

North Carolina basketball is practically a religion to many, and its Holy Trinity of coaches are Frank McGuire, Dean Smith and Roy Williams. In Light Blue Reign, Art Chansky traces the history of these men -- plus alumnus and peripatetic coach Larry Brown -- from their early years to their national championships at North Carolina and beyond.

Their early experiences were vastly different. McGuire grew up on the tough streets and basketball courts of New York City, the youngest of 13 children of an Irish cop who died when McGuire was still a toddler; Smith's parents were teachers and devout, albeit liberal, Baptists, and his father coached the first integrated school-basketball team in Kansas history; Williams was the son of a deadbeat, drunken father and a mother who had to work long hours to make ends meet. But they all shared a drive and talent for coaching basketball that took them to the heights of the sport.

With so many years, coaches and players to chronicle, the vast cast of the book can become confusing, especially since the stories are not always told strictly chronologically. Lennie Rosenbluth, Phil Ford and Michael Jordan are household names for Tar Heel fans, but how many know the names of Ben Carnevale, Buck Freeman and Pete Brennan? It's not always easy to keep all these people straight, and the scope of the book means that it's impossible to delve too deeply into most events and personalities. Still, the book provides a great overview of the history of the program, and will be particularly educational for fans who weren't around for the McGuire or early Smith years.

For a more in-depth, personal look at the current UNC basketball coach, there is Williams' autobiography, Hard Work. The title has deep meaning for Williams -- it's a trait deeply instilled by his mother's example, the fuel for his success and the last thing that his teams chant in the huddle before a game.

He lays bare his tough, hard-scrabble upbringing: constantly moving to stay with one relative or another; watching his mother take in ironing to pay the bills; protecting her by running his abusive father out of the house for good when he was 14; and finding a refuge in basketball.

When he was young, Williams writes, "I had no dreams. No goals. Nothing whatsoever." He became a good student to please his mother and from an intrinsic competitiveness that has fed his entire life, not from any thought that it would get him anywhere. But then Buddy Baldwin, his high-school basketball coach, became his father figure. His encouraging example made Williams realize that he wanted to be a coach like Baldwin and help other kids.

Williams turned down a full engineering scholarship to Georgia Tech to go to UNC and pursue his coaching dream -- Baldwin thought that Smith would be a great role model for him. Williams played one season for the freshman team, but then turned his attention to learning more about being a coach and piecing together odd jobs to earn money to stay in school: observing the varsity practices, keeping game statistics for Smith and refereeing intramural games.

After a stint as the basketball coach for a high school near Asheville came his big break: Smith asked him to return to UNC as a part-time assistant coach. The catch was that the job paid only $2,700 a year, not much for a man with a wife and child to support. So he had to rely on hard work again, piecing together salaries from five jobs his first year. After years on the UNC bench and turning down head-coaching offers from several schools, the "right job" that Smith counseled him to wait for came along: Kansas.

Williams recounts his struggles and successes with the same clear, plain-spoken voice that fans will be familiar with. Along the way are compelling inside accounts, including his sickening first day as the coach at Kansas, his falling-out with former UNC coach Bill Guthridge, Tyler Hansbrough's disastrous first visit to Chapel Hill -- and, perhaps most intriguing to fans, what made Williams turn down the UNC head-coaching job in 2000 and what went into his decision to accept it in 2003. What emerges is a clear portrait of a caring, emotional, almost pathologically competitive man who has constantly vowed never to be outworked by anyone.