But with all due respect to those football extravaganzas, college sports’ finest offering just might have been played with a round — not oblong — ball Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“Keith Langford walked by me and told me this game would be on ESPN Classic for a long time,” Georgia Tech guard Jarrett Jack said after No. 2-ranked Kansas University came from behind to claim a one-for-the-ages, 70-68 overtime victory over the No. 9-rated Yellow Jackets.

Langford, who traded good-natured barbs with fellow Nike summer camp counselor Jack all day, admitted to the exchange.

“Yes, I told him that in overtime when we were down by four and they were taking it out on the side,” Langford said. “He agreed. We’ll see.”

Langford scored four pivotal points in overtime and 18 overall — eight fewer than Jack, who exploded for 26 Saturday after totaling 29 against KU in last year’s Elite Eight game in St. Louis.

Langford just might be asked to provide pre- and postgame analysis if the KU-Georgia Tech thriller someday does become an ESPN Classic.

The 6-foot-4 senior was involved in crucial play after crucial play, the biggest of all his twisting 10-footer over Tech’s Mario West with 3.3 seconds left in the extra session.

Langford, who dribbled at the top of the key guarded by West with about eight seconds left, stormed by the rookie, spun and hit nothing but net, causing one of the loudest roars in Allen Fieldhouse in recent history as he busted a 68-all tie.

“I told ’em to give me the ball, and everybody get out of the way,” said Langford, who emerged as hero after a horrid first half in which he hit one of eight shots and scored two points. “The dude … being a freshman, had nothing to do with it. I didn’t think he was their best defender. Obviously, coach (Paul) Hewitt had confidence in him playing defense.

“I figured I could create a little space. I felt I could make a shot.”

So confident is the lefty — whose three-pointer with 1:31 left finally erased a 16-point deficit and tied the game for the first time at 61 — that he demanded the ball not once, but twice.

He missed a straight on-jumper past the free-throw line with :03 left in regulation and the game tied at 61.

“At the end of regulation, coach wanted us to do the same thing, but Christian (Moody, eight points, 10 rebounds) didn’t hear him, and he tried to set a guard screen on Schenscher, so I had to shoot over a guy 7-feet tall,” Langford said of Luke Schenscher, who was held to 10 points off 1-of-7 shooting.

The 7-foot Schenscher did hit seven of eight free throws. Tech canned 16 of 23 to KU’s four of 10.

“It felt great,” Langford added of converting the winning shot, “but kind of a sweet sorrow at the same time. I think of what could have happened if I was in the game down the stretch last year when we played ’em.”

Langford fouled out on a controversial call after hitting two free throws in overtime to give KU a two-point lead in last year’s 79-71 NCAA Tournament loss to Tech.

He was in the game when it counted this year.

“It’s not a play (set up for Langford). It’s, ‘Go score,'” KU coach Bill Self said. “I asked him when they were dribbling it up: ‘Do you want me to call a timeout? Do you want it?’ He said, ‘I want it.’ I said, ‘Just wait, get the ball and score.’ We did a good job of getting flat and getting out of his way so he could jump up over the defender.”

Langford proved he’s more than just a scorer after hitting the tie-breaking shot at 3.3 seconds.

He guarded Jack as the Tech guard accepted an inbounds pass from Isma’il Muhammad, whose sight was blinded by inbounds defender Moulaye Niang.

Niang was hounding Muhammad in the backcourt.

An off-balance Jack retrieved the pass, and, perhaps worried about a charging Langford, stumbled out of bounds.

KU inbounded to Alex Galindo, who was fouled and missed two free throws at :1.6. The second miss bounced to Muhammad, whose last-second fullcourt heave didn’t come close to falling.

It capped an amazing comeback for the Jayhawks (9-0), who looked lost when down by 14 early and trailed by as many as 16 twice.

“I thought, ‘Gosh dang, we’re getting run out of our own gym,'” Self said. “I knew that wouldn’t happen, but I thought something good needed to happen pretty fast.”

“I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ It felt like there were 10 of them out there at the beginning of the game,” Langford said of Yellow Jackets. “They were playing real good defense, and the offense we were running we hadn’t run against anybody else.”

The Jayhawks scrapped their usual high/low offense without the injured Wayne Simien and have gone to what Self called a “penetrate and pitch, drive it and create mismatches with a ton of screens (offense).”

KU eventually regained its composure and lagged by just seven at halftime. The Jayhawks stayed tough and hung on to outscore Tech (9-2) in the extra session, 9-7.

“All the little commentators and analysts were probably thinking at the beginning of the game we couldn’t do it without Wayne,” Langford said. “Now they can eat it and shove it. I’ll keep my mouth shut. They can say whatever they want to. This team is more than one person.”

Yet one person was the subject of Jayhawk fans’ toasts Saturday: Langford, who wasn’t slowed at the end despite taking a hard shot to the right eye from a Yellow Jacket down the stretch.

“It’s up there, man,” he said, asked if it the winning shot was the most exciting shot of his career. “I’d say it’s a tie with the Nebraska shot (three to beat Huskers in Lincoln, Neb). Just being a freshman, making a shot like that is pretty good. This is 1A.”

The Jayhawks will open Big 12 Conference play Wednesday night against Texas A&M in an 8 p.m. tipoff at Allen Fieldhouse.