MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia nor Pittsburgh need added motivation to perform how they hope to when facing one another
If for any reason the Mountaineers or Panthers are seeking extra incentive ahead of the 190th edition of the Backyard Brawl at 9 Wednesday, they don’t need to look further than recent results in what could aptly be described as early-season struggles for both squads.
West Virginia (3-4) has lost three of its last four games, struggling to overcome a shorthanded roster and stumbling down the stretch on several occasions while utilizing no more than a seven-man rotation for the most part.
Pitt (5-3) won each of its four games and has since lost three of four and two straight. Each of the Panthers’ losses — against Florida, Missouri and Clemson — came to a team from a Power 5 Conference, while their most recent victory against Oregon State is the lone win over a Power 5 foe.
“They’re coming into it with a terrible taste in their mouth,” WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert said. “We’re coming off a loss to St. John’s and losing three of four and each one them being an absolute battle. We have a terrible taste in our mouth. It’s going to probably come down to who wants it worse and that better be West Virginia.”
Pitt is striving to end a six-game skid in the storied history of the rivalry, with ESPN2 set to televise the latest edition inside the WVU Coliseum.
A trio of Panthers average well into double-figure scoring and combine to average more than 50 of the 82-plus points Pitt averages. Six-foot-8 forward Blake Hinson is averaging a team-best 20.5 points, while guards Ishmael Leggett (15.1) and Carlton Carrington (14.6) are the other primary scorers.
“They’re not the type of team that’s going to pound it down low. They don’t have that type of structure. Their offensive attack really comes from those three guys in a lot of ways.
Hinson, with his surplus of size, leads the squad with 30 three-pointers on 71 attempts, while the 6-3 Leggett is the top rebounder with a 7.1 average.
Pitt out-rebounds opponents by nearly 12 on average and has six players averaging at least 4.6 boards.
“They rebound it really well at all positions. When you see guards that rebound it with those type of numbers, it’s very concerning,” Eilert said.
The Mountaineers have struggled late in games, faltering down the stretch in each of their last three losses — first against SMU and Virginia at the Fort Myers Tip-Off and most recently last Friday in their second home setback of the season against the Red Storm.
Since outscoring Missouri State by 14 points in the second half of an eight-point season-opening victory, West Virginia has been outscored, 217-178, over its last six second halves.
Only once — when the Mountaineers outscored Virginia 31-30 over the final 20 minutes — has WVU won the second half since its first game.
“It’s pretty indicative of what we have going on with our roster trying to manage that,” Eilert said.
West Virginia has shot north of 40 percent only twice — in wins over Jacksonville State and Bellarmine, and on the latter occasion, the Mountaineers were at 41.2 percent. WVU has also struggled from the perimeter, having made only 30.4 percent of its 135 three-point attempts.
An offensive strength of the Mountaineers has been their ability to get to the free-throw line, with WVU averaging nearly 24 free throw attempts and coming off a season-high 43 against St. John’s.
Quinn Slazinski’s 16.7 scoring average is tops on the team, with Jesse Edwards directly behind at 15.7.
Kobe Johnson, filling in for Kerr Kriisa as the starting point guard, is the team’s third double-figure scorer at 11.3, but no other Mountaineer is averaging more than 6.7 points.
Kriisa will miss his eighth game Wednesday as part of a nine-game suspension. He’s eligible to play his first contest at West Virginia on December 16 against Massachusetts.
“We’re bending and 3-4 doesn’t sit right with me whatsoever, doesn’t sit well with them or our staff,” Eilert said. “Our NET ranking [No. 209] doesn’t sit well, but it is what it is right now. I told them, ‘take a hard look at that board’ with our NET rating, who we’ve lost to, who we’ve beaten and that needs to be rock bottom for us.
“It’s natural for a lot of people when they’re struggling to start pointing fingers or this, that and the other and try to figure out different solutions, but we have to stay the course. We have help coming and we’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in positions to win each game and then we can look back at this point and say, ‘that was rock bottom. We figured out a way to have the resolve to continue to improve each week and each time out on the floor.’”