Uncontrollable horn delays Iowa-Illinois for 11 minutes, forces players to warm up again

The Athletic has live coverage of Iowa vs. Illinois in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

Houston, it had a problem.

And it was loud and annoying.

The shot clock horn malfunctioned and proceeded to torture the eardrums of those in attendance and those at home during Saturday night’s Elite Eight matchup between Big Ten foes Iowa and Illinois inside the Toyota Center in Houston.

The horn blared for nearly eight minutes, forcing children to cover their ears and testing the patience of these old rivals. Iowa’s mascot, Herky the Hawk, jokingly covered the ears of fans with foam blocks.

“We’ve got a horn issue,” announcer Kevin Harlan said on the TBS broadcast, “and there’s nothing more painful than that.”

“Surely there’s a way to unplug this — surely there’s a horn expert somewhere in this building!”

Kevin Harlan on the call as an issue with the horn gets worked on. pic.twitter.com/dnI0W9HOWT

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 28, 2026

The horn began blasting with the ninth-seeded Hawkeyes leading the third-seeded Fighting Illini 22-20 with 7:43 left in the first half. Sideline reporter Lauren Shehadi reported that after the operations crew unplugged the shot clock, it would take a few minutes to stop sounding. But they had no clue because it had never happened before.

It ended up being an 11-minute delay with a trip to the Final Four on the line.

After the horn ceased to torment those inside the Toyota Center, Harlan rejoiced and informed viewers that fans inside the arena were on their feet. More glitches were left in the wake of the horn, however: The video board inside the arena stopped working as play resumed, and a handheld backup air horn was used to signal substitutions and timeouts.

TV analyst Robbie Hummel said during the horn delay that it “felt very JV.”