On Saturday afternoon, only two things were at stake for an Oregon men’s basketball team that failed to discover its identity throughout the season — pride and seeding for the Pac-12 tournament.

They failed to improve the outlook of either.

Instead, the Ducks (18-13, 11-9 Pac-12) closed out a disappointing season in a dismal way, dropping their final game at Washington State, 94-74, in Pullman, Wash.

Entering the game, the Ducks’ obituaries had been written. The nail was in the coffin and they played like a team well aware of both.

Will Richardson hadn’t recorded a field goal since the Ducks’ game against UCLA on Feb. 24, going 0 for 11 since. Richardson was a late scratch for Saturday’s game with a head injury, making way for Franck Kepnang in the starting lineup.

Barring a deep Pac-12 tournament run, Richardson’s collegiate career will sputter to an anticlimactic close. Although Richardson failed to lead this iteration of the Ducks to the heights his past teams reached, his legacy in Eugene will be remembered in a positive light.

He played a key role in two runs to the Sweet-16 (2019, 2021), and led the team in scoring (14.1 points per game) this season.

With Richardson on the bench, the Cougars stole the headlines. Noah Williams led his team with 19 points while they shot an uncharacteristic 47.1-percent from deep. Efe Abogidi contributed 14 points, 12 of which came in the first half. His aggressive paint play set the tone for the Cougars as they overpowered the Ducks.

Jacob Young led Oregon with 21 points, but the team’s unit-wide unwillingness to lock in on the defensive side resulted in a 20-point loss. After falling behind 46-32 at halftime, the Ducks showed no signs of attempting to battle back. In fact, their play diminished.

They turned the ball over seven times in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The deficit reached a high of 25 points. It became insurmountable and the Ducks turned the end of the game into a youth movement.

Nate Bittle played 17 minutes, while Lok Wur, Isaac Johnson and Brady Parris earned playing time to close out the season. There’s not much the Ducks learned from this loss that they didn’t already know — this team lacks an identity and a will to fight.

Their next stop is the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament, which starts on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Despite their worst record during the Altman era, the Ducks still have a chance to make the NCAA tournament — they’ll just have to run the table in Vegas.