Opinion: The City Game has run its course

   Following the Panthers' win on Monday night against Northern Illinois, Pitt men's basketball coach Jeff Capel gave a curt response to the question of why Duquesne and Pitt aren't playing a 2019 edition of the City Game.

   "I had a lot of involvement in the scheduling, but there were some things that happened that we decided not to play them this year," Capel stated, noting that those deciding factors were between Capel and Athletic Director Heather Lyke.

   Capel's answer caused quite a stir on Twitter and among several members of Pittsburgh sports media, with many voicing their opinion that Pitt and Duquesne should play every year in a continuation of a great, city-wide tradition:

It does not matter that Pitt did RMU a solid. That was a game. Pitt-Duquesne is an event. It's unique. And it's not happening. People are allowed to be bummed about it. To want answers. To give Pitt a proportional amount of heat for its choices.

— Adam Bittner (@fugimaster24) December 17, 2019

Oh? Since 1990 PSU has won ten of 12 games and the last three they outscored Pitt 101-30. That sounds very similar time Pitt over Duquesne.

— Paul Zeise (@PaulZeise) December 19, 2019

   Of course, Zeise accidentally hit on the main reason that Pitt and Duquesne not facing off in 2019 is not a big deal. The Panthers and the Dukes have had about as much of a rivalry as a hammer and a nail over the past three decades. Going back to the 1989-90 season, Pitt is 27-3 against Duquesne in the City Game.

   One of those losses came during the dark days of the Kevin Stallings era, in December 2016. To find the next most recent Duquesne victory, you have to go all the way back to the Ben Howland era, when Pitt fell to Duquesne in Dec. 2000.

   In the 16 years between Duquesne victories, Pitt finished inside of the AP top 20 an impressive 10 times, including five times inside of the top 10. They reached the Elite Eight once, and the Sweet Sixteen four more times.

   Duquesne, meanwhile, has finished better than no. 100 in KenPom's college basketball rankings just three times since 2002, and has finished ranked worse than no. 200 a whopping nine times. And it's not necessarily trending in the right direction for the Dukes.  Despite a strong showing so far this season, Duquesne has failed to crack the top 100 since the 2010-11 campaign, and has finished lower than no. 152 in every season since 2012-13.

   Sure, Pitt has struggled over the past few seasons. But even since its fall from dominance several years ago, the Panthers have been a much better program than the Dukes. In Kevin Stallings' first season at Pitt, when Pitt finished 16-17, they still finished at no. 79 in the KenPom rankings--145 spots ahead of Duquesne that year.

   Pitt cratered to no. 224 in Stallings' second season, one that for many Panther fans serves as Pitt's absolute worst season in living memory. Of course, this was essentially an eye-level finish with where Duquesne has sat for the better part of the past two decades.

   And that is perhaps exactly the reason that Pitt fans don't seem to care that Pitt isn't playing Duquesne this season:

But the Pantherlair message boards have the biggest collection of Pitt fans on the internet. There is little to no mention of Duquesne basketball on our message boards ever. So I don't know what that says about the game. But not a lot of Pitt fans seem to be missing it.

— Jim Hammett (@JimHammett) December 17, 2019

I'm not sure I understand why people are so upset that Pitt isn't playing Duquesne this year.

— Merry Pittmas (@CoreyCramer) December 17, 2019

Good point. Which is why Pitt and Penn State don't play annually anymore. https://t.co/sKkdJDN2oE

— Ryan Schaitkin (@rpschaitkin) December 19, 2019

   It is no secret that Pitt basketball still has a long way to go to be the program that it has been, and the program that it can be. And that's exactly the point. Capel envisions returning Pitt basketball to its place atop the college basketball ranks, where it stood for nearly 15 years to start the 2000s.

   Part of rebuilding the Pitt program to the success that it regularly achieved as recently as half a decade ago involves acting like a top basketball program. And the best programs in college basketball don't play neutral site contests in December against mid-major programs.

   There is an entire generation--and perhaps multiple generations--of Pitt fans who consider Duquesne to be little more of a rivalry than any southern ACC school that the Panthers play once each season.

   I will concede this: Duquesne is playing some solid basketball right now, and it would be fun for the city to have two perennially strong college basketball teams in the city of Pittsburgh. It could even be fun to see those two teams play an annual rivalry game.

   But with commitments to the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, an early-season tip-off tournament, and 20 annual ACC games, there just isn't as much room on the schedule as there was several years ago when Pitt played just 18 Big East games each year.

   "I understand that that game is something that's been a staple of this city, and I'm not saying that it won't continue, but I'm saying that I need to do what is best for my program," Capel told Colin Dunlap and Chris Mack on 93.7 The Fan.

   Given the kind of program that Capel envisions that the Panthers can become, combined with the realities of the college basketball schedule, it is a very reasonable assessment for Pitt to make that playing Duquesne at a neutral site each year simply is not the best course of action right now.

   If Keith Dambrot can continue his winning ways with the Dukes and build a program that becomes more than a perennial bottom-feeder, I would wholeheartedly support reviving the City Game.

   But as of the writing of this article, that's just not what the City Game is, and it's been little more than hammer meets nail for 30 years.