February 25, 2026; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks center Nate Bittle (32) grabs a rebound in the second half of the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Matthew Knight Arena. Mandatory Credit: Craig Strobeck-Imagn Image Longtime rivals Washington and Oregon are scheduled to meet Saturday in Eugene, Oregon, to close out a lackluster regular season.
Oregon (11-19, 4-15) has no hope of making the NCAA Tournament without winning the Big Ten Tournament next week and earning an automatic berth. Washington (15-15, 7-12) is confident it won’t have to play on the first day of the tournament. Here, the Ducks will be one of the bottom four seeds in the conference.
The Huskies won 91-72 over Southern California in their home regular season finale in Seattle. Hannes Steinbach, a leading candidate for Big Ten Freshman of the Year, had 22 points and 24 rebounds.
Zoom Diallo scored a career-high 26 points in the win.
German-born Steinbach continued to impress. He became the third player in Washington history to record 20 points and 20 rebounds in a game.
He also recorded 19 double-doubles, the most by any Big Ten freshman in the past 30 years, according to the Washington Athletics.
“We challenged him,” Washington coach Danny Sprinkle said. “He dominated the glass, he dominated the paint, and that opened things up.”
Oregon has lost its last two games in a season that is unusual for the Dana Altman era of Ducks basketball. The Ducks will finish the regular season with their worst record since 2008-09, when they went 8-23. And for the first time since Altman took over as coach in 2010, Oregon failed to reach 20 wins.
Altman said he is grateful for the fans who have supported the team during the unusual season and hopes to draw a large crowd for Senior Day on Saturday.
“Our core group of fans has been great. They’ve stuck with us,” Altman said. “I know it was hard for them. It was hard for the players.”
Oregon played without one of its seniors, 7-foot-tall Nate Bittle, in a 72-57 loss to Washington in January in Seattle due to injury.
He is the 41st player at Oregon to score 1,000 career points, and was the Ducks’ leading scorer (16.9 points per game) despite missing 23 games due to injury.
Oregon has won 11 of the last 12 meetings between the teams at home, including a 22-10 win over Washington under Altman.
This is the 319th all-time meeting between Pacific Northwest schools.
–Field level media
