How basketball legend Roy Williams became UNC baseball’s most unexpected coach
UNC’s Walker McDuffie took a deep breath on the mound.
With two outs and East Carolina’s tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, the sophomore pitcher knew this next sequence could change the tide of not only Game 2 of the Chapel Hill Regional, but the course of North Carolina’s entire postseason.
Inside his cap, a familiar voice delivered the call. The right-hander set, reared back and fired. Swing and miss. Game over.
McDuffie pumped his arms and shouted as Boshamer Stadium erupted around him. Somewhere away from the ballpark, at home in Pinehurst, another Tar Heel was celebrating, too. Because UNC won, yes, but because he had a little something to do with it too.
Because the voice that had just called the final pitch belonged to Roy Williams.
For the past two years, the former North Carolina basketball coach has been the voice of North Carolina’s PitchCom, telling Friday starter Jason DeCaro when to unleash an inside fastball and instructing the Tar Heel fielders on defensive shifts — all from the comfort of his couch.
“I’ve loved it,” Williams told the N&O in a phone interview Saturday night, just after McDuffie clinched a 7-5 win over ECU. “I know it’s a very small thing, but it’s a big thing for me, because of my love for North Carolina baseball. And I don’t take any credit, because they get to call the pitches. It’s just my voice is all it is.”
Used in MLB since 2022, the PitchCom electronic communication system transmits pitch calls directly to pitchers and other defensive players via a receiver earpiece. It removes the need for traditional hand signals and is designed to prevent opposing teams from stealing signs.
UNC pitching coach Bryant Gaines says the system speeds up the pace of play and helps his pitchers stay locked into a consistent routine. His players agree. They’d also tell you that hearing a Hall of Fame coach is a little cooler — OK, a lot cooler — than listening to Gaines’ voice.
“It’s really awesome hearing a legend like that every pitch,” said starting pitcher Ryan Lynch. “It’s definitely nice to have a third party call the pitches… It was something that I found out for the first time early last year, and hearing his voice start calling the pitches gives you some more confidence.”
It seems to be working.
UNC has boasted the best power-conference pitching staff in college baseball the last three years and are one Super Regional win away from advancing to the College World Series for the 13th time in program history. North Carolina, the fifth overall seed, will meet Southern Cal this weekend in a best-of-three Super Regional series in Chapel Hill.
Williams said he plans on attending. But even when he hasn’t been able to make it to Boshamer Stadium, his voice has been with the Tar Heels.
North Carolina has been using the PitchCom system since 2024. By the time the 2025 season was rolling around, Gaines grew tired of hearing pre-taped recordings of himself call up to 180 pitches each game.
“I’m hearing my voice in my ear over and over and over again,” Gaines said. “Finally one day I was like, ‘You know what, maybe there’s something we could do with this that’s a little bit cooler than just hearing Bryant Gaines’ voice.’”
When Gaines and UNC baseball head coach Scott Forbes started brainstorming possibilities for their PitchCom voice actor, they dreamed big.
“Originally it was Michael Jordan,” Gaines said with a laugh. “We wanted to get Michael Jordan.”
Even with coach Scott Forbes’ connections — Gaines would like to point out Forbes does have Jordan’s phone number — that seemed ambitious. Quickly, the focus shifted to Williams.
The three-time NCAA championship coach needed little convincing.
“It’s been an easy thing for me,” Williams said. “I was very flattered. I started laughing. I told Forbes, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
Williams and his wife, Wanda, have been some of the UNC baseball program’s most visible supporters — particularly after the head coach’s retirement in 2021. Williams was also the first coach Forbes met with when the longtime assistant took over for Mike Fox in 2020.
“He called me Scotty Boy,” Forbes said last week with a smile, recalling that conversation years ago. “He still calls me that when I call him.”
“I think it’s so awesome,” Forbes continued. “It still blows my mind that I have Roy Williams in my cellphone… he’s also a really good friend and big-time supporter. He gets it. Other coaches understand what it takes, how much time it takes and what it’s like to win big games.”
And Williams’ voice has been part of the Tar Heels’ wins these past two series — even if he doesn’t like to take credit for it.
“It’s a fun thing,” Williams said. “It’s nothing to do with them being successful. It has nothing to do with that. It’s just Scotty Boy and his staff and kids want to have a little extra fun, and like I say, keeping this old man a little involved.”
Dadgum curveball
Not long after Forbes pitched Williams on the PitchCom idea, Williams invited Gaines and UNC general manager Carter Hicks to the Smith Center.
They arrived at his office that morning with a list of commands.
Williams arrived with curiosity.
Before recording anything, Gaines said Williams wanted to understand exactly how the technology worked and how his voice would be used.
“I got excited,” Williams said. “I really did. I always told everybody I’m one-take Roy in any interview. I always said, ‘If we have to do this crap over again, that means you screwed it up.’ And then, when they got me to do the pitch calls, I was afraid I was going to screw it up.”
Williams began to laugh, adding, “It’s the only time I’ve ever been nervous.”
After running through a list of 27 words and phrases — recording the audio files that now form the backbone of UNC’s PitchCom system — Williams peppered Gaines and Hicks with questions about defensive alignments, bunt coverages and situational strategy.
Williams also had a few ideas of his own.
“I said, “Can, one time, I say give him a little chiiin music?” Williams said, stretching out the phrase with a long Southern drawl. “You know, that’s baseball lingo for a guy crowding a plate, and I wanted to get him off the plate.”
“And so they let me record that,” Williams added, his voice punctuated by a chuckle, “but I don’t think they’ve ever used that one.”
Gaines said there were a few extra files recorded — perhaps with some dadgums and frickins — but the staff ended up maxing out the space on its PitchCom system.
“Our original recordings, we were going to record some of those to fire up the pitcher or settle them down — whatever the case may be,” Gaines said. “So we recorded a few of those.”
If it sounds like these coaches were having fun, it’s because they were. Gaines estimates the trio spent an hour and a half together that morning. The UNC pitching coach smiles as he recalls it. He also shakes his head at the irony he feels in explaining anything “from an athletic standpoint to a Hall of Fame coach.”
“It was an experience that I’ll always remember,” Gaines said, “because not only were we having the opportunity to spend that time with him, but he was genuinely interested in exactly what we were doing and how all that stuff applied to helping us win a game.”
Williams said he was fascinated by the details — from the analytics to the scouting — as a former baseball player and life-long coach.
“It’s high level stuff,” Williams said. “And I said, ‘Guys I love it. But if it doesn’t work, throw it out. I want to win.’”
But, were they to implement the Roy Williams PitchCom system — trademark pending — the Hall of Famer made Gaines promise him one thing.
“When we got ready to leave,” Gaines recalled, “he said, ‘Just so you know, I’m gonna take credit for all the strikeouts that I call. And all the base hits? Those are the ones you’re gonna take credit for.’”
Williams’ baseball love affair
While Williams’ life is intrinsically connected to basketball, his first and favorite sport as a kid was baseball.
“When I was a kid, Mickey Mantle was my favorite player,” Williams said. “And I used to grab the paper every afternoon to see what he did the night before. It’s just been a love affair with me.”
In a childhood that spanned from Marion to Asheville, Williams played every position. He’d pitch one game and catch the next. He played second baseman and shortstop in high school, and lettered in baseball and basketball all four years at T.C. Roberson High School. He said he “wasn’t any good,” but made varsity as a freshman and started every other year.
His teams, he remembers, were talented. His junior season ended in the state semifinals. He finished as state runner-up his senior year.
“It was just crushing to me,” Williams said, “because that was my last athletic event as a high school kid. But I loved it.”
“When I was 11 years old, I was one of those guys that would put on my uniform at 10 o’clock in the morning, and the game didn’t start till seven,” Williams added, “and so it’s been that way my whole life.”
That affection eventually evolved into a decades-long attachment to North Carolina baseball.
Williams traces that connection through generations of Tar Heel coaches, beginning with Walter Rabb and continuing through Mike Roberts, a former classmate who later became UNC’s head coach.
Then came Mike Fox.
Fox, who coached the Tar Heels from 1999 to 2020, played baseball and junior varsity basketball at North Carolina and the two developed a close friendship.
“I just loved what he did,” Williams said.
The relationships for Williams even stretched beyond Chapel Hill. Williams knew Chad Holbrook long before Holbrook became a player and assistant coach at UNC because Holbrook’s father, Eddie, was a basketball coach. Williams often brought his own high school teams to Furman for camps run by Eddie Holbrook.
“So to me, they sort of run together,” Williams said.
The common thread through all of it was baseball — a game that still brings back childhood memories for the 75-year-old.
Williams hasn’t been able to attend as many games this season as he would like — “I’ve had a few little health problems,” Williams said, “My butt’s getting old, so I gotta be a little more careful” — but his attachment to the program hasn’t changed.
That’s evident in the way he talks about this year’s team.
When asked what stands out most, Williams immediately launched into an evaluation of the pitching staff, praising both the starters and relievers before lamenting the departure in recent years of sluggers like Vance Honeycutt.
He then brought up junior infielder Gavin Gallaher. Last year at a game, Gallaher’s sister showed Williams a photo of him with a young Gallaher at one of Williams’ basketball camps.
“She supposedly said that I told him, ‘Stick with baseball. Don’t worry about basketball,’” Williams said, laughing. “I’m sure I did not say that to him.”
To the players, that support matters.
“It’s awesome,” said Jason DeCaro, the All-ACC pitcher. “This university, that’s how special it is and how awesome the people are. Everyone here supports us. We support other teams as well. It’s kind of like a big family, in a sense. We all want everyone to succeed. We all hope they want us to succeed as well.”
Gaines believes Williams’ distinctive voice adds something, too — a distinctly North Carolinian flair.
The Tar Heels’ roster is filled with in-state players. The majority of the coaching staff is made up of North Carolinians. Every pitch they hear comes from one of the most recognizable figures in the state, yes, but with the familiar drawl of a man who grew up in the Carolina mountains.
“When I’m making a big decision on which pitch to call,” Gaines said, “it does give me a little bit of comfort.”
Williams laughs at the idea that his voice, and his accent, might be making that kind of impact.
When someone recently sent Williams footage from his introductory press conference at Kansas in 1988, he was struck by what he heard.
“Oh my gosh,” Williams said. “My accent was just unbelievable. I laughed my rear end off.”
Still, he likes the thought that his voice might bring a little comfort — or at least a smile — to a pitcher standing on the mound. It brings a smile to him, too.
Williams expects to be back at Boshamer Stadium for the Super Reionals, likely dressed in the same combination UNC fans have grown accustomed to seeing: a bright pink polo and a straw hat.
“My favorite colors are Carolina blue and pink, and I’m comfortable enough in my manhood to wear either one of them,” Williams said. “But the hat stuff, just the students, they asked me if I would wear one, and I said yes.”
“You know what, what the heck. I’m still young enough — or old enough — to want to have fun.”
