Saturday’s Elite Eight showdown between No. 3 seed Illinois and No. 9 seed Iowa was subject to a loud first-half interruption as the horn inside the Toyota Center began blaring incessantly during a timeout, causing an 11-minute delay in the high-stakes matchup.
“Surely there’s a way to unplug this,” play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan said over the TV broadcast. “Surely there’s a horn expert somewhere in this building.”
The bizarre sequence unfolded around the under-8 media timeout with the Hawkeyes leading 22-20. The delay was so lengthy that both teams began shooting to stay loose. Eventually, the horn stopped blaring, eliciting a mock cheer from the crowd.
An unfortunate equipment malfunction caused an 11-minute delay in today’s South Regional championship game between Illinois and lowa,” NCAA senior vice president Dan Gavitt said in a statement released on social media. “With 7:43 remaining in the first half, the scoreboard control system froze, which also caused the integrated horn to freeze as well, leading to the horn going off for approximately seven minutes. To silence the horn, building personnel had to shut down the main center-hung videoboard, which is connected to the horn. During the delay, teams were allowed to warm up on the court. The game clock and shot clock were not affected, and a manual horn is being used for the remainder of the game. There was an attempt to reset the center-hung videoboard at halftime, but the issue could not be resolved.”
Even after the horn stopped, the arena’s video board hovering over mid-court stayed dark, indicating a technical malfunction that went beyond merely one faulty horn. The replacement horn? More like an airhorn that you might see smuggled into a soccer match.
While frustrating, the situation elicited some humorous reactions. The Iowa mascot did a favor for some fans by using foam pads to cover some ears.
Any concerns Iowa may have had over a potential interruption to its early rhythm dissipated when the Hawkeyes went on a quick 5-0 run after play resumed.