Kansas guard Devonte' Graham (4) gets under the bucket for a shot before Duke forward Amile Jefferson (21) during the first half of the Champions Classic on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

New York ? In January of 1998, Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan made a now-famous decision to send soon-to-be-named Super Bowl XXXII MVP Terrell Davis into the game against the Green Bay Packers for a key series despite the fact that migraine headaches had left Davis temporarily unable to see.

Shanahan didn’t care. He needed his star running back as a decoy near the goal line because, as Shanahan told Davis before sending him back in blind, the Packers never would have believed Denver was going to run the ball with Davis on the sideline.

So back he went, out to the huddle and into to his spot behind John Elway. On that snap, the Broncos scored on a play-action bootleg run by Elway and went on to upset the Packers to win their first Lombardi Trophy.

A similar scenario unfolded Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where No. 7 Kansas knocked off top-ranked Duke, 77-75, in the Champions Classic. Even if the stakes weren’t as high and the situation not as scary, the excitement and hype brought on by basketball in the Big Apple sure made it feel that way.

Kansas guard Frank Mason III (0) bounces off of Duke forward Amile Jefferson (21) for a shot during the second half of the Champions Classic on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

With Devonte’ Graham once again starting to feel the effects of leg cramps late in a tight game, the junior guard looked over to KU coach Bill Self and asked to come out. But with a limited bench and foul trouble up and down the lineup, Self could not — or at least did not — take Graham off the floor.

“Devonte’ couldn’t do much,” said Self, recalling that Graham played all but just a few seconds in the win. “He asked to come out and I said, ‘I can’t take you out.’ He’s cramping with five minutes left in the game and I told him to just go stand in the corner. And that’s what he did.”

Because he had responsibilities on both ends, Graham could not simply stay put. He still had to defend, be ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice and keep his head in the game and his opponents from realizing what was going on.

Even just the mere threat of having Graham out there helped the KU offense spread the floor and kept Duke’s defenders from sagging into the lane, where Mason carved them up in the final few minutes while setting up his game-winning jumper. The fact that Graham was nearly just as effective as Mason on the drive during the second half only made him a better decoy while making things tougher for Duke, which had to respect Graham’s offense.

It’s worth noting that even with the cramping issue that has dogged him during all four KU games this season, it was Graham who could be seen crashing hard from the left wing as Mason’s game winner rotated toward the rim. The shot went in, of course, but Graham was prepared to react in case it didn’t.

That’s the beauty of what this Kansas team has going for it as the Jayhawks finally tap the brakes on a wild start to a promising and exciting season. In Mason and Graham, the Jayhawks have a one-two punch that few teams in college basketball possess. Equal parts tough and talented, experienced and improving, Mason and Graham have shown an unquestioned ability to lead this team during the Jayhawks’ first two regular season games against big time programs.

Stellar guard play is nothing new at Kansas, but the mere fact that Self mentioned these two when talking about a trio of guards who won a national title in 2008 provides at least a glimpse into what type of luxury Self believes having Mason and Graham playing together is for the Jayhawks.

“It’s good,” Self said of having two veteran war horses in his backcourt. “You know, we’ve had some good guards. We had (Sherron) Collins and (Russell) Robinson and (Mario) Chalmers back there. There was three of them. We only have two of these. But they’re both pit bulls. They both (have) a kind of assassin mentality and they probably bring our team as much toughness as anybody does.

“For two kids that committed to Appalachian State (Graham) and Towson State (Mason), I do think they’ve got quite a bit of national attention going into this year. But, still, it’s amazing how tough those two are.”