The college basketball season is coming down the wire on one of the most exciting seasons we have seen for quite some time, with only two weeks away from the start of the official post-season play with conference tournaments starting on March 3rd.

This season has been a rollercoaster of a ride as five first-ranked teams have fallen such as Michigan State dropping their first game to Kentucky, followed by two upsets of Evansville taking down Kentucky and Stephen F. Austin taking down Duke. Some of the hottest teams at the beginning of the season such as Iowa State, Michigan and North Carolina have fallen off their horse and have faced harsh struggles through the last three months, and we are just getting to the Big Dance.

There are four main conferences to look out for. They are the Big 12 and Pac 12 (both looking to send five teams) the Big East, who looks to send seven teams and finally the Big Ten being projected to send at least ten teams, one team away from the record for most teams sent to the tournament, behind the Big East in 2011 with 11.

The Big Ten is looking to dominate the tournament this year as they have ten teams projected and 11 teams are in the hunt to earn a bid to the Big Dance. The Big Ten has a few dangerous teams that could make an impressive run such as Penn State, Maryland and Wisconsin. The rest of the Big Ten is looking fierce and could do some damage but many are inconsistent. Michigan started out 7-0, giving Gonzaga their only loss on the year and winning the Battle for Atlantis but then suffered multiple losses on the road. Rutgers is an impressive 17-0 at home, but 1-6 on the road and Iowa has been playing strong all year, but the loss of guard Jordan Bohannon early on this season has forced the Hawkeyes to rely heavily on the consistency of Luka Garza. This can work but it sometimes seems as if he is the only player that can hit shots in big losses, like their loss to Purdue earlier this season.

Currently, the four projected number-one seeds are Baylor, Gonzaga, Kansas and San Diego State, so it is time to break down how likely their success will be in the tournament.

First off, we’ll look at Baylor and Kansas. Baylor started the season 1-1 but has won 23 games in a row since then, including an impressive win over Kansas. With Baylor and Kansas both being from the Big 12, it should be an exciting conference tournament to see who comes out on top but both will likely keep their number one seed. Baylor has some solid wins, topping Kansas, Villanova and West Virginia and look to keep their winning ways going well into March.

Kansas also has a couple of big wins, topping West Virginia twice but has fallen to Villanova and Duke which is cause to ask the question if they will be able to compete with the big dogs in the Madness of March. Gonzaga and San Diego State both seem to pose big question marks at this point in the season. There is no doubt that both teams are good; Gonzaga has a win over an 11th-ranked Oregon team who was arguably not completely put together at the start of the season, and another solid win over 24th-ranked Arizona. San Diego State has yet to play in a ranked game which causes concern for when tournament time hits and they’ll be matched up with other ranked teams.

Without the bracket being set in stone, it is hard to tell who will come out on top. The teams to watch out for right now are the surprise in Baylor and specifically Penn State, who has made a complete 180 turn-around from last year, with the biggest underdog looking to be Iowa with the help of Wooden award hopeful Luka Garza. The tournament this year will surely be an unpredictable ride.