The temptation is too great to resist, so the search is on: Who will be the next Carmelo? Perhaps Charlie Villanueva at Connecticut. Or maybe Luol Deng at Duke. David Padgett at Kansas University has a chance, too.

Carmelo Anthony and the teen-age terrors from Syracuse would seem to have established a new blueprint for college basketball. It’s a kid’s game, and any of the freshmen mentioned above — perhaps the three most highly pursued high school players not named “LeBron” — could lead his school to a national title, as Anthony did seven months ago. Couldn’t they?

“It’s possible, but I don’t think it can happen too often,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “I think you can be younger than in the past, sure. But I think we’ll be the exception to the rule.”

The rules, though, are changing. The college game — spurred by players leaving earlier for the NBA — is skewing younger all the time. Freshmen who spend their high school summers traipsing from coast to coast, playing against the highest level of competition, are more prepared to play when they step on campus than ever before.

The top players rarely stay for their junior — let alone their senior — seasons. Maybe Boeheim is correct, and Syracuse, which started two freshmen and won the title, is an anomaly. But the Orangemen’s run highlights the possibilities, and gives freshman-laden teams hope. At the very least, there’s little question that more is possible for — and expected of — younger players, and therefore younger teams.

“I’ve got six sophomores and a freshman out of 10 scholarships, and we’re talking like we’re old,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

“About six, seven years ago, if I said that, they’d say, ‘Holy mackerel. You’re young.’ Now, I’m saying I think we’re pretty old and mature.”

Duke’s national preseason ranking of No. 2 is a reflection of the new definition of maturity.

Even with marquee upperclassmen such as U-Conn. junior Emeka Okafor, Saint Joseph’s senior Jameer Nelson, Missouri senior Ricky Paulding and Gonzaga senior Blake Stepp, it is further indication that college basketball demographics have changed in the last decade.

Certainly, the situation isn’t anything like 30 years ago, when freshmen not only weren’t expected to contribute, they weren’t allowed to. Maryland coach Gary Williams won the national championship in 2002 behind seniors Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter.

This season, Williams welcomes five freshmen, at least four of which expect — not hope, but expect — to play a lot right away. Just a tad different from Williams’ days as a freshman at Maryland in 1964, when he was a spectator.

“You’d sit there after your freshman game and watch the varsity and say, ‘Boy, next year, I’ve got to go out and play against that kind of competition,”‘ Williams said.

“That’s why you were a freshman in college, to get used to that kind of thing. It’s different now. It’s like, ‘I’m 18 years old. Let’s go. Let’s play.”‘