MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Josh Eilert is looking for a little shot of adrenaline to help his struggling West Virginia University men's basketball team.
 
Well, there's always an energy booster looming just 75 miles away in nearby Pittsburgh, and those Pitt Panthers will hop on a bus tomorrow and drive down Interstate 79 for some Wednesday night friendship and fellowship in what has become better known as the Backyard Brawl.
 
No matter how good or bad things are going, the Pitt game always seems to stir things up around here.
 
Eilert is hoping a better outcome in the game can get his ailing Mountaineers headed in a different direction following last Friday night's 79-73 loss to St. John's, WVU's fourth in seven games so far this season.
 
The St. John's defeat played out like some of the others for WVU this year – play well until intermission and run out of gas in the second half.
 
"We're plus-22 for the seven games in the first half and minus-25 in the second half," Eilert said earlier today. "That's indicative of what we've got going on with our roster trying to manage everything."
 
From the season opener against Missouri State on Nov. 6 through last Friday night's loss to St. John's, Eilert has walked off the court at halftime with trepidation knowing what's confronting his undermanned basketball team in the second half.
 
But he refuses to make excuses, so I will do it for him. Eleven is three more than eight, which is the number of cards Eilert was holding compared to what Rick Pitino had in his hand last Friday.
 
"It goes through my mind 24/7, and it's what keeps me up at night trying to manage it all," Eilert admitted. "Our guys have given everything they've got; they're competing."
 
Which is why it's hard to get too upset with WVU's 3-4 record or its 209 ranking in this week's NCAA NET. These guys are trying, which is evident to anyone who watches, but they've seemingly looked into too many broken mirrors, walked under too many stepladders and opened too many umbrellas indoors. 
 
"The first thing that comes to mind is bend but don't break," Eilert explained. "We're bending. At 3-4 doesn't sit right with me whatsoever, and it doesn't sit right with our staff. Our NET ranking doesn't sit well, but it is what it is right now.
 
"Like I told (his team), 'It's hard to look up at that board right now and it shows our NET rating, who we've lost to, who we've beat, and who we've got coming up. Look at that number. That really needs to be rock-bottom for us,'" he said.
 
Pitt, coming off 24-12 campaign and an NCAA Tournament appearance in coach Jeff Capel's fifth season in Oakland last year, is dealing with its own issues.
 
The Panthers have lost two in a row to drop to 5-3 following Sunday afternoon's 79-70 loss to Clemson. That's coming after a 71-64 home defeat to Missouri, so Pitt will be hungry for a victory against a West Virginia team it hasn't beaten since Barack Obama was president.
 
That adds up to six straight losses dating back to a 72-66 Panther victory at the WVU Coliseum in 2012 when Jamie Dixon was still leading the Panthers.
 
"They are coming here with a terrible taste in their mouths," Eilert said. "We've got a terrible taste in our mouths, and it's going to come down to who wants it worse and that better be West  Virginia."
 
Iowa State transfer Blake Hinson, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound senior forward from Deltona, Florida, is Pitt's best player. He's averaging 20.5 points per game and has made a team-best 30 from behind the 3-point arc.
 
Eilert said guarding him will have to be a team effort.
 
Ishmael Leggett, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound Rhode Island transfer, is averaging 15.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and is shooting an impressive 91.4% from the free throw line. And Zach Austin, a 6-foot-7, 210-pound High Point transfer, is contributing 14.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
 
Pitt is averaging 82.9 points per game and goes about nine-deep, or one more player than the maximum Eilert has been using.
 
Iona transfer Quinn Slazinski continues to lead West Virginia in scoring with an average of 16.7 points per game, including a team-high 19 in the St. John's loss. Syracuse transfer Jesse Edwards is still averaging a double-double with 15.7 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, while guard Kobe Johnson is chipping in with 11.3 points per contest.
 
WVU is scoring about 10 to 15 points fewer per game than it was averaging before Arizona transfer Kerr Kriisa began his nine-game NCAA suspension, which will be lifted following Saturday's Drexel game.
 
"Kerr is a magician in many ways in terms of reading defenses, and what we've put in place was built around the point guard like Kerr," Eilert noted. "Not that Kobe hasn't done a great job because he has done a phenomenal job, but it's not naturally his position. We can kick Kobe off the ball a little bit and put him in positions where we can take advantage of smaller guards in the post."
 
Eilert also indicated forward Akok Akok's health situation continues to trend in a positive direction after he suffered a medical emergency during the George Mason exhibition game on Oct. 27. The coach was not specific on what Akok has been cleared to do, if anything, deferring specifics to WVU's medical staff. 
 
Wednesday night's game will tip off at 9 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Chuckie Kempf and Chris Spatola). Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi tips things off at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
 
Tickets remain and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.