Imagine LeBron James learning from Coach K, Amare Stoudemire decked out in Carolina blue or how about Kobe throwing it down in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Thanks to the new NBA minimum age rule, these one-time fantastical dreams will become the norm in college basketball.

Two years ago, Ohio State's Greg Oden and Texas' Kevin Durant would never have considered opening a letter of intent, let alone signing one. But now, high school seniors can't make the jump to the NBA until their graduating class has been out of school for at least a year.

This influx of talent is the best thing to happen to college basketball since 1939, when a few renegade schools broke away from the NIT and started this little thing known as the NCAA Tournament.

Forcing high schoolers to attend college has raised the level of play around the country. Parity is prevalent, especially considering the impact one player can have on an entire team.

Now, non-traditional basketball powers are able to recruit better talent than in the past.

Consider the case of Penn State and incoming recruit Talor Battle.

Georgia Tech, a member of the ACC elite, wanted to offer Battle a scholarship if their freshman point guard, Javaris Crittenton, declared for the NBA draft.

Since Crittenton has not yet made a decision, Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis offered Battle a scholarship quickly, and the high school senior made his decision to play for the Nittany Lions before the Yellow Jackets could even offer a scholarship.

Had this situation occurred two years ago, Crittenton most likely would have entered the draft out of the prep ranks. And Battle would have headed to Atlanta.

Instead, the not-so-prominent schools can challenge the "big boys." Perennial cellar-dwellers such as USC and Kansas State have already secured top-10 recruiting classes for next season.

And although the one-year talent at the bigger schools -- Oden, Durant or Brandan Wright of North Carolina -- may dominate for their one year, schools like Penn State will be able to keep players in their system longer. This will allow the second-tier teams to develop their program to the point where they can compete with the elite freshmen.

But don't think for a second that the Lions are simply only going to recruit kids who will stay for four years.

"We're going to try and recruit the best guys we can," DeChellis said. "Nobody has a crystal ball. [A player] might enjoy college and want to stay for two or three years. I don't think anybody has a complete idea of how things are going to turn out in the recruiting world."

College basketball is more relevant now. Sure, there were always the office pools to spark interest in March, but in the past few years, interest in regular season games has declined.

But, suddenly, SportsCenter is flooded almost every night with Oden and Durant.

The debate about which freshman sensation is better has been discussed at water coolers and coffee makers around the country.

The sporting public has rediscovered its interest in the college game. Not since its heyday when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared-off in the 1979 championship game has NCAA basketball been this popular, and it's all thanks to the minimum age rule.