(Todd Melet)

Here is why Roy Williams won’t lose three straight games.

Williams calls himself “Ol’ Roy” because he is, in his words, “corny as all get out.” In many ways, he is just a good ol’ boy from the North Carolina mountains. But that’s not all he is.

I picked up his book, titled “Hard Work,” that his co-author — the celebrated Tim Crothers — did such a fabulous job on. The second chapter details Williams growing up as just about the poorest kid he knew. He added water to his milk and corn flakes every morning, so the milk would last longer.

His mother and older sister had already gone to work, and if Roy was old enough he would have been off to some job, as well. So he rode the bus to the local park in the summer and to the gym on winter weekends to play ball.

Once he didn’t have a nickel for the fare. Mr. Haynes, the bus driver, knew him and let Roy promise he would pay him back. The next day, he was there for the first bus in the morning to pay Mr. Haynes — even though he wasn’t taking that bus.

Roy went back home to do odd jobs for his mother, who paid him 25 cents a day. She hated leaving him alone, but always reminded him to do the right thing. When Roy asked her how he’d know what that was, she said “you’ll figure it out.”

The chapter is filled with anecdotes that bring tears to your eyes, but it also demonstrates where Roy Williams got his toughness from. When things don’t go his way, you think he says, “Well, dad gum it, I’m a millionaire basketball coach who has won three national championships”? Not on your life or his.

That’s why he will take his sixth-seeded team into a New York snowstorm Wednesday and whip whoever the Tar Heels play Wednesday night at the Barclays Center. This is a team that has already won 22 games against one of the hardest schedules in the country and, seemingly, stopped playing in the second half against Duke, infuriating its coach.

What does Williams know in the modern-day version of hard times. He knows hard work. His players will be ready, and it will take a monstrous effort to beat them. Go back and read Chapter 2. You’ll see why they’ll all be fighting mad.