College Basketball: The Top 5 Ranked Teams Heading into Championship Weeks

It is the first week of March, and the madness has begun. During these next two weeks, conference tournaments will take place; Championship week(s) if you will. 

The top five teams, ranked according to the Associated Press, are Ohio State at No. 1, Kansas second, Brigham Young third, and Duke and Pittsburgh tied for fourth. None of the top five teams are in the same conference. 

Ohio State is part of the Big Ten conference. They are 15-2 within their conference and 28-2 overall. The Big Ten conference tournament will take place in Indianapolis March 10th through the 13th. Their next game is against No.10 Wisconsin on the sixth of March. 

The quick turn around of games that Ohio State has had to deal with recently will help prepare them for the 2011 NCAA tournament. If Ohio State wins against Wisconsin, or Purdue loses this weekend, Ohio State can win the regular season conference title outright. 

Kansas is a member of the Big 12 with a record of 12-2 in the conference and 27-2 overall. Kansas had a matchup against No. 24 Texas A&M tonight. The Big 12 conference tournament will take place in Kansas City, Mo. March 9-12.

The Jayhawks have a deep team that has allowed them to rack up the points, even when some notable players like Tyshawn Taylor, Thomas Robinson, Mario Little and Josh Selby, have missed some playing time. Kansas is favored to win the tournament in Kansas City. 

Brigham Young is 13-1 in the Mountain West conference and 27-2 overall. The Mountain West conference tournament will take place in Las Vegas March 8-12. The Cougars play New Mexico tonight.

Winning these last two games of the regular season are key to building the moment the Cougars may need to win their conference tournament. Brandon Davies, BYU's third leading scorer, has been suspended for the rest of the season for violating the school's honor code. This may hinder the Cougar's slightly when entering their next games. New Mexico beat Brigham Young the last time they butted heads. 

Duke is leading the ACC with a 12-2 record. Overall, the Blue Devils have a 26-3 record. Greensboro, North Carolina will host the ACC  conference tournament March 10-13. Duke will take on Clemson tonight.

Duke was just bumped from the No. 1 seed, the third straight week where there has been a change at No. 1. Duke and North Carolina are tied for first within their conference right now. Both teams have conference games this week. If they respectively win their games this weekend, Saturday nights game between the two will be a conference face off.  

Pittsburgh has a 13-3 record in the Big East conference and 25-4 overall. Pittsburgh will play at South Florida this evening. The Big East conference tournament will be held in New York March 8-12. 

With two conference games this week against lesser ranked teams within the Big East, Pittsburgh is looking to win the regular season conference title. Notre Dame has one more loss than Pittsburgh and play Connecticut on Saturday. While the win against Villanova helped, it most likely won't be enough to take down Pittsburgh.