NCAA Championship Viewers Thinking Texas Tech’s Matt Mooney Is From Wakanda, Illinois Goes Viral

It’s a disappointing but true fact that Wakanda, the technologically-advanced African nation that is home to Black Panther in the Marvel Universe isn’t real. That Wakanda is fictional has been a great disappointment for many fans especially since Black Panther hit theaters last year. What is real, however, is the sound-alike town of Wauconda, Illinois and on Saturday night viewers watching Texas Tech’s Matt Mooney play in the NCAA championship tournament a little confused about where the athlete is really from.

At the start of the game between Texas Tech and Michigan State on Saturday night, announcer Jim Nantz introduced the players taking the court — including Mooney. As Mooney is from Wauconda, Illinois, Nantz said as such — but since it sounded like “Wakanda”, well, the internet couldn’t help but freak out. After all, they had some real questions: Isn’t Wakanda in Africa? Isn’t Mooney white? Wait, does this mean Wakanda is real? And they play basketball?!?

The Mooney incident is just the latest experience of the Illinois town being confused for or associated with T’Challa’s African homeland. Right after Black Panther hit theaters, the Illinois town which is a little over an hour north of Chicago, started receiving friendly prank phone calls from fans making Black Panther-inspired requests, such as requests for Vibranium or even the enthusiastic yelling of “Wakanda Forever!” on the line. The city — technically a “village” — even had a bit of good-natured fun with it themselves, sharing photos on Facebook of various people and officials in Wauconda dressed up in a Black Panther mask going about their day-to-day lives, enjoying “the impact of Vibranium in Wauconda.”

Of course, while folks on Twitter slowly started to realize the Wakanda/Wauconda difference, they had a lot of fun commenting on the situation. And it seems that, perhaps, the Panther God Bast was on Mooney’s side despite him being from Illinois and not Africa. Texas Tech defeated Michigan State on Saturday night, putting the Red Raiders in position to bring home their first-ever national championship in men’s basketball — if they can manage to defeat the Virginia Cavaliers Monday night.

Read on for how the internet reacted to the Wakanda/Wauconda confusion and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Not today, Satan!

Wait, did we hear that right?

Did they really just say that?

Wakanda (Illinois) Forever!

Better check Google

Okoye knows

Mind blown!

A dude from Wauconda

It’s been in Illinois this whole time

He did play like Black Panther, though…