A speedbump on Tobacco Road: NC's Big 4 all lose on same day

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) The four Tobacco Road schools hit quite a speedbump Saturday.

For the first time in nearly three years, North Carolina, Duke, N.C. State and Wake Forest all lost on the same day.

It might have been just the second time that's happened in the storied history of this college hoops hotbed.

No. 5 Duke, No. 9 North Carolina and Wake Forest all lost at about the same time early Saturday afternoon, with Virginia Tech beating the Blue Devils 89-75, Georgia Tech knocking off the Tar Heels 75-63 and Clemson rallying past the Demon Deacons 73-68.

N.C. State then capped off the state's 0-for-4 day by losing 81-63 at Miami.

''It was not a good day for us, to say the least,'' North Carolina coach Roy Williams said, referring to his team.

He just as easily could have been talking about his instate rivals.

The last time everything came together in such a decidedly imperfect storm was Jan. 11, 2014. On that day, North Carolina lost by 12 at Syracuse, Wake Forest fell by 15 points at Pittsburgh. Duke lost at Clemson and N.C. State lost to Virginia.

Another instance of the four schools losing on the same day couldn't be found. Two of the schools have incomplete sets of records from the era before the Atlantic Coast Conference's formation in 1953: Wake Forest's media guide doesn't list complete dates of games played before the 1950-51 season, and N.C. State's doesn't before 1946-47.

The next time they all play on the same day is Jan. 21 and it's guaranteed that won't all lose again then - because Wake Forest visits N.C. State.