The interminable horn struck again on Saturday during the Elite Eight of the men’s NCAA tournament.
Just over a month after a stuck buzzer stopped an NBA game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons, the same thing happened during No. 3 seed Illinois’ game vs. No. 9 seed Iowa at the Toyota Center in Houston.
The game was stopped for over 11 minutes with 7:43 to go in the first half as the shot clock horn kept sounding. Given the importance of a working buzzer in a basketball game, the game didn’t continue after the under-eight media timeout because the horn was still going off.
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When the horn finally shut off, it was greeted with cheers all across the arena. At one point, CBS announcer Kevin Harlan joked that the seven-minute delay felt like 70 minutes.
The NCAA said during the second half that the issue stemmed from a malfunction in the scoreboard hanging over the court and that arena staff had attempted to reset the scoreboard at halftime to no avail.
“An unfortunate equipment malfunction caused an 11-minute delay in today’s South regional championship game between Illinois and Iowa,” a statement from NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said. “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 sideboard, 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.”
The manually-operated horns were simply personnel stationed along the sideline with an airhorn.