Roy Williams Is the King of North Carolina

Powder blue. It's not a color people usually wear, certainly one you rarely see in menswear at Macy's.

It's light, fluffy, an all-too-bight hue amid the blacks and grays and bold ties that everyone wears Monday through Friday. But then walk over to Foot Locker, to any sporting goods store from Savanna, Ga. to Seattle. 

There it is, on sweatshirts, shoes, T-shirts, headbands and socks. It's on $150 pairs of Jordans, looking powerful. It's one of the most famous colors in sports, all because of one team—North Carolina basketball.

You see navy blue and it could be the Yankees or Tigers. You see green and it could the A's or Oregon Ducks. But you see that shade of blue—Carolina blue, they call it—and immediately one team comes to mind. 

UNC basketball is an institution, one with national cachet and pride. Kids from their Fischer Price hoop days to their varsity high school days dream of playing there, of cruising down Tobacco road to big-time ACC games. National titles, tournament glory—that is what Carolina blue and UNC basketball represent. 

And Roy Williams is at the head of it all.

He's the coach. He's the recruiter, reputation-upholder and face of the program. When Bleacher Report ran a poll asking fans to crown their local king, Williams was North Carolina's choice. 

Now, as ruler, it's his duty to maintain it amid pressure from outside forces. 

When he takes on his biggest rival down the road, America, which is usually indifferent to regular season college basketball, watches in earnest. Duke vs. UNC is one of sports' best rivalries, the quintessential rivalry in NCAA hoops. 

In the south, which loves its football and its auto racing, these games are monumental.

Think about that for a minute. Basketball games between two academically superior schools in a NASCAR state command Super Bowl-like attention.

That's what happens when two of the best programs in the country are based 15 miles from each other. it's why Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski could easily be king, too. 

But alas, it's Williams.

He deals with the pressures of ruling, too. Krzyzewski is firmly entrenched at Duke, protected and fortified by all the titles he's brought the Blue Devils in his storied tenure. The way it should be, of course.

But Williams? He's a ruler that at times is on the rocks. He's been on the hot seat, chastised like an unpopular politician.

It's the pressure of being on top. It's the pressure of representing a nation of Carolina blue.