With the Huskies playing their best basketball since the Brandon Roy years, there are probably many Dawg fans out there hoping Washington will once again be able to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, regardless of how unlikely it may be.

Unlikely because of how weak the Pac-10 is perceived to be this season, and because this year the college basketball powers are concentrated in the east, specifically the Big East and the Atlantic Coast conferences.

In ESPN’s latest Bracketology — a projection for the field of 65 in the NCAA tournament — the Pac-10 has five teams in the tournament while the ACC and Big East have seven and eight teams, respectively.

Rivals.com also has eight Big East and seven ACC teams in their projections, as does cbssportsline.com.

All three projected brackets have five Pac-10 teams in their field of 65, as well as six Big Ten teams.

These projected brackets disagree on the Big 12, however. ESPN projects five teams to make the NCAA tournament while Rivals projects six and CBS projects seven.

The SEC looks like possibly the weakest major conference. Rivals and ESPN believe five SEC teams will enjoy March, while CBS thinks only four will.

Examining the records of some of the top-projected seeds, it’s easy to see why many college basketball analysts feel like this is the year of the ACC and Big East.

In the ACC, the best three North Carolina schools — Duke, North Carolina and Wake Forest – have all been ranked No. 1 at some point in the season. With respective records of 19-2 (6-1 ACC), 20-2 (6-2 ACC) and 17-2 (4-2 ACC), all three of these schools could be No. 1 seeds come tournament time.

Unlike in football, these three NC schools play tough schedules and their RPI rankings of one (Duke), five (UNC) and 13 (Wake Forest) support that.

Meanwhile, the Big East is loaded with talented teams at the top of its standings too.

Connecticut (21-1, 10-1 Big East) is the No. 1 team in the nation, and with its 68-51 win over No. 5 Louisville (17-4, 8-1 Big East), the Connecticut Huskies will try to maintain some stability on top.

The main challengers to the Huskies’ Big East crown and their No. 1 spot are Pittsburgh (20-2, 7-2 Big East), Marquette (20-2, 9-0 Big East) and the aforementioned Louisville.

Like the ACC, the top teams in the Big East are at the top of the RPI list as well: Pittsburgh is second, UConn is fourth, Louisville is 11th and Marquette is 14th.

If Washington is to make the NCAA tournament and get through the first few rounds, it will have to make it past the beasts from the east.

Reach columnist Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.