Washington State ended the regular season on Saturday with a 15-14 loss to the Wyoming Cowboys. The loss came as a shock to most college football fans after the Cougars entered the game as 17.5-point favorites. The loss also marks WSU’s only home defeat this season.

As a result, WSU received no votes in the Week 15 Coaches Poll or AP Poll this week. The Cougs had still received votes in Week 14 despite a loss to Oregon State. WSU climbed as high as #19 in the AP Poll this season and as high as #18 in the Coaches Poll before ending the season on a three-game losing streak.

The 8-4 Cougars will learn their bowl fate, along with the rest of the nation’s eligible teams, later this week, following the completion of conference championship games on Friday and Saturday. WSU will be playing in their eighth bowl in the last nine full seasons (excluding the shortened 2020 campaign).

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RECRUITING: 2025 Tight End Austin Simmons Decommits From WSU, Flips To Washington

The Washington Wizards are losers of 14 consecutive games after falling to the Milwaukee Bucks 124-114 inside the Fiserv Forum on Saturday night.

The loss completed a winless month for the Wizards, who last won on Oct. 30.

Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey called the Wizards “painful to watch.”

“Now over a month into the season, the Washington Wizards have still only beaten one team (the Atlanta Hawks…twice). And Washington isn’t even really threatening opponents in these games,” Bailey writes. “There have been occasional glimmers of hope from Bilal Coulibaly (perimeter defense), Alexandre Sarr (rim protection) and Bub Carrington (playmaking for himself and others), but watching the Wizards has generally been a painful experience this season.”

If one watches the Wizards, he or she shouldn’t watch them to hope if they win. They will be underdogs in every game they play for the rest of the season. The motive for the Wizards this season is to grow, especially when it comes to the younger players on the roster.

If there is growth from the team’s three first-round picks — Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George — along with second-year pro Bilal Coulibaly, then that should make things less painful for the Wizards.

Things are rough early in the season because these players are learning how to play in the NBA and with each other on the fly while other, more experienced teams are fighting for playoff positioning and have to win games where they can get them. When they play the Wizards, they know that it’s an opportunity that they cannot waste to grab a win, so Washington is getting every opponent’s A-game on every given night.

The Wizards are back in action on Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who hold the league’s best record.

Make sure you bookmark Washington Wizards on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!

EUGENE — No. 1 Oregon beat Washington 49-21 Saturday night at Autzen Stadium.

Jedd Fisch recapped the loss for the Huskies (6-6, 4-5 Big Ten), who await their bowl game destination and matchup.

Below is a transcript of Fisch’s postgame press conference.

No. 1 Oregon (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) vs. No. 4 Penn State (11-1, 8-1)

• When: Saturday, Nov. 30
• Time: 4:30 p.m. PT
• Where: Autzen Stadium, Eugene
• TV channel: NBC
• Stream: You can watch this matchup live for FREE with Fubo (free trial). If you don’t have cable and want to watch the game on the cheap, sign up for Peacock Premium ($7.99/month) and get it on NBC’s streaming service. You can also get this game on DirecTV Stream (free trial). You can also watch the event live on NBC Live if you already have cable or satellite provider login information.
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JEDD FISCH

Opening Statement…

“A tough night, obviously. We did not play our best and we ran into a really, really good football team, the No. 1 in the country and they certainly reflected that today. I think that they don’t really have many weaknesses. I thought we had some moments that I was proud of our guys and how we played at certain times in the game. (The score) was 7-6 in the middle of the second quarter or so, but it got away from us a little bit. I liked how we responded at the end of the half to make it 28-14. I thought we came out and did a decent job in that first drive but in the end, we just didn’t make enough plays. We had too many negative plays. Demond Williams had a lot of good plays, 85% completion for the night. But obviously, we can’t take as many sacks as we took. We got a lot to work on and we have 15 practices to do it. We have Signing Day on Wednesday, we have a portal window opening on Monday. The new calendar is certainly interesting, so we’re going to have to get after it. We’re going to come in tomorrow, grade the film and start scheduling practices for next week and be ready for a bowl game. As I said to our team in there, you have a chance to play in the postseason and you earn the right through 12 games, not through one. When you win six, you get to play in the bowl game and that’s what we’re looking forward to doing.”

On Will Rogers’ response to not starting vs Oregon…

“Will [Rogers] was fantastic, as he has been all year long. I let Will know very early, two weeks ago, that this was the direction we were going and he was an A-plus as he has been all year long. I can’t say enough good things about Will Rogers the person. I am so proud to have had the opportunity to coach him this year. I am going to miss him, and if he ever comes back, he will have a coaching job here.”

On Will Rogers’ availability for a bowl game…

“I expect Will (Rogers) to be around all the time. He is fantastic. He is going to prepare the same way he would as a starter. We talk a lot about being able to help Demond (Williams) if Demond is going to start, which he will. Also for Will to be able to continue on his journey and reach his dreams.”

On the decision to start Demond Williams vs Oregon…

“At this time in the season, after the way we moved the ball in the second half against Penn State when Demond was in…we had three drives where we got inside the 20, two of which were field goals. And then the three drives he had in the second half against UCLA, which led to 17 points. It was time and it is nice to have a full game of film to coach him off of. We are in a situation where now I can sit down with him and go through each play. We had 57 plays that we can now go through. There’s a lot of situations there and he has three years left so we can get him going. We also have 15 practices to get him those starting reps.”

On Demond Williams taking accountability for Oregon’s 10 sacks…

“We trained him well to say that. I would hope he would say that. I would hope that our line would take the same accountability, our running backs would take the same accountability. I think all of it is a learning curve. I’ve always said that all 11 score touchdowns and all 11 take sacks. There’s so much to it. It’s getting open, it’s getting rid of the ball, it’s holding up in protection. There is a lot to learn from that. I think he’s going to learn when to get rid of the ball. But on the same token, there’s probably times where I yelled ‘Get rid of the ball’ and he scrambled around and got a first down on third down. This is what we’re going to have to learn and this is what we’re going to live with and continue to see Demond’s growth throughout this process.”

On defensive performance vs Oregon…

“We would always like to be better and bigger up front and make more plays to push the line of scrimmage. They had way too many yards after contact. Rushing the ball, they were able to do it at their disclosure. They were able to pick and choose the run game. They were getting too many yards from it. We need to be able to get bigger. We need to be able to really handle an offensive line that is built for the Big Ten.”

On reviewing the film vs just moving forward…

“There is too much to learn. We are such a young team and there is so much to learn in many places. For no other reason, we are playing with a true freshman quarterback. We will look at the tape and teach him off of it. There are so many other reasons to learn. For our receivers, when you’re correcting Denzel Boston, he has two more years. When you correct Jeremiah Hunter, Rashid Williams has to learn from that. When you correct Keleki Latu, Decker DeGraaf has to learn from that. Obviously on defense Khmori House has to learn from every correction we make to Alphonzo Tuputala and Carson Bruener. As does Isaiah Ward, continuing to get better, but he gets corrected on every play. As does Ephesians (Prysock), as does Makell Esteen, as does Vince Holmes, Peyton Waters. There’s so many young players on this team, we have to keep learning.”

On Russell Davis’ status…

“We lost him in Tuesday’s practice. He will not be back for the bowl game. He will have to get operated on and we will see him back in about three months.”

On the future of the program…

“There’s part of coming to an end in a regular season where you have emotions. Where you’re giving hugs to guys like (Carson) Bruener and (Alphonzo) Tuputala and you’re building these strong relationships with players who have been here a lot longer than I have. On the same token, there is energy and excitement about what is in the future. We have talked about sending this team out with a winning record, sending the team out with a bowl game championship. Send this team out in a place where they can say ‘we won seven with a team that nobody expected us to do much.’ And then let’s see what it looks like next year with all these young guys and the youth movement that has occurred. I’m really looking forward to what this team can do now and in the future.”

On who will start the bowl game…

“Demond (Williams) will start the bowl game.

— James Crepea covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.