A sudden political situation could affect the Duke basketball team right in the middle of the NCAA Tournament.
A few hours ago, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would be taking actions to revoke “all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders” amid ongoing issues between the U.S. and the South Sudan transitional government.
“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,” Rubio posted on X at 5:46 p.m. ET on Saturday.
As it so happens, the Duke Blue Devils basketball team has such a visa holder on their roster. Duke starting center Khaman Maluach hails from South Sudan and presumably has a South Sudanese passport.
Naturally, basketball fans have been curious to know if Maluach will be affected by this sudden policy change.
According to Brendan Marks of The Athletic, Duke spokespeople have told him that the program has “no comment on the situation at this time.”
Per Duke spokespeople, the program has no comment on the situation at this time. https://t.co/Lrz7FMtGMe
— Brendan Marks (@BrendanRMarks) April 6, 2025
Some basketball fans are not worried at all, believing that Duke will find a way to secure an exemption for Maluach. But plenty more are understandably worried that Maluach and the Blue Devils are about to be screwed over in a big way by this change:
“Another reason to hate this administration,” one user remarked.
“What the hell man. I’m speechless,” wrote another.
“sorry that you have to be reporting on this kind of (expletive) during the final four. insane,” a third wrote.
But at least one user suspects that Maluach is in the United States under a British passport just like former Duke star Luol Deng (also from Sudan) was when he first moved to the United States.
There’s other reasons to believe that Rubio’s policy announcement won’t impact Duke too directly, namely that he said he’s “taking actions” and not that he’s “taken actions.” The implication is that he hasn’t formally done anything yet, which means Maluach should be fine at least through Monday even if he is subject to having his visa revoked.
Nevertheless, it’s a situation that certainly bears watching right now.
Related: Everyone Said The Same Thing About South Sudan After 1st Quarter vs Team USA