I know it was a bad loss but deporting them seems a bit harsh…

The Duke Blue Devils delivered one of the all-time embarrassing meltdowns last night during their game against Houston in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.

With 8 minutes left in the game, Duke was up by 14 and seemed to be well on their way to a spot against Florida in the national championship game. But their shooting went ice cold and Houston mounted a furious rally, despite being down by 6 with 30 seconds left in the game, to pull off the comeback and take down the Blue Devils 70-67.

But to make matters worse, now they’re in danger of losing one of their star players – not to the NBA or the transfer portal, but to deportation.

On Saturday, just hours before tipoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States would be revoking all visas of South Sudanese passport holders:

“I am taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and to restrict any further issuance to prevent entry into the United States, effective immediately, due to the failure of South Sudan’s transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner.”

That includes Duke center Khaman Maluach, a 7’2″ native of South Sudan who averaged 21 minutes, 8.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game during his freshman year with the Blue Devils.

A Duke University spokesman said the school is “looking into the situation and working expeditiously to understand the implications for Duke students,” but if Rubio does in fact revoke all visas of those from South Sudan, it looks like Duke could end up having to look for a new center next year.

Duke Not Happy About “White Lotus” Character Wearing Their Merch

After the embarrassing loss last night, many basketball fans took to Twitter to share a meme from the popular HBO series White Lotus that seemingly predicted the heartbreaking exit for the Blue Devils:

Duke blew a 7 point lead with 1:26 left. Thank you White Lotus for an all time meme #finalfour2025 pic.twitter.com/zsuq4IUTiI

— Your Best Friend's Black Friend (@IAmStatMatt) April 6, 2025

But as it turns out, Duke wasn’t exactly happy about their merch being used in the scene.

This season, the show is set at the White Lotus resort in Thailand, and one of the main storylines involves the Ratliff family from North Carolina who are visiting the resort so that their daughter Piper can research Buddhist monks. The father Timothy Ratliff, played by Jason Isaacs, is a wealthy financial guy and graduate of Duke University, and his son Saxon (played by Patrick Schwarzenegger) also went to Duke and works for his father’s company.

The Duke connection is mentioned several times in the storyline as Timothy’s wife Victoria reveals that she went to UNC, where Piper is currently studying. And their youngest son Lochlan has been accepted to both schools, so he has a big decision to make in his future.

The classic house divided.

Anyway, early on in the season Timothy receives a call from a journalist asking about a money laundering scandal at his company involving a former business partner. Facing potential federal charges for his own involvement, Timothy eventually steals a gun from the resort’s security guard and at one point is seen holding it to his head, prepared to commit suicide – while wearing a Duke shirt.

And there’s also another (less graphic) image of Ratliff staring out of a window in his Duke shirt that also presents a pretty good opportunity for some memes poking fun at the Blue Devils:

hey babe, new Duke meme just dropped pic.twitter.com/msHSxvPZnk

— Arrogant Nation (@FightOnRusty) March 24, 2025

But unsurprisingly, Duke wasn’t happy about the image making its rounds on social media.

The university issued a statement after the episode aired, clarifying that they didn’t approve the use of their merch in White Lotus and criticizing the show’s scene as going “way too far.”

“The White Lotus not only uses our brand without permission, but in our view uses it on imagery that is troubling, does not reflect our values or who we are, and simply goes too far.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death on college campuses. As imagery from the show is being shared widely across social media, we are using our brand to promote mental health awareness and remind people that help is available.

Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling, but characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists.”

Probably no surprise that they’re not happy about their shirt being used in that scene…