'White Lotus' Duke basketball meme goes viral right in time for March Madness

The 2025 NCAA Tournament officially tips off with the First Four on Tuesday, March 18, as St. Francis (PA) and Alabama State battle it out for the opportunity to become the No. 16 seed and take on No. 1 overall seed Auburn in the First Round of the Big Dance.

On Wednesday, March 19, Mount St. Mary's and American University will play for the chance to beat second-overall seed Duke.

Of course, every time March Madness comes around social media is flooded with Blue Devil hate and the jokes are overwhelming every time the team suffers an early-round exit. That will make the winner of Mounta St. Mary's and American "America's Team."

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On Selection Sunday, as the field was announced, the hit series White Lotus produced a Duke meme that is sure to be used throughout the tournament.

The meme features Jason Isaac's character Timothy Ratliff putting a gun to his head while wearing a Duke t-shirt.

White Lotus just blessed us w an all-time meme if Duke loses early in the tournament (and for any brutal Duke loss thereafter) pic.twitter.com/pIsYiiozYL
— glansberg (@bigpizzaguy) March 17, 2025

Ratlff is a Duke graduate on the show. It's a meme that will haunt any real-life Duke grad or current studio if the Blue Devils fall short of expectations this March.

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The meme immediately went viral after the episode aired with more than 56,000 likes. It has been viewed over three million times.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips hands the championship trophy to Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer after the 2025 ACC Conference Championship game. / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

We'll have to see how long it takes for it to surface during the tournament, but the moment the Blue Devils begin to struggle in a game you can expect to see it.

Duke and and the winner of Mount Saint Mary's and American will face off on Friday, March 21, at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tip-off is set for 2:50 p.m. ET.

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