The NCAA Tournament has been over for a couple weeks. As noted, within days of that, college basketball writers start to make their ridiculously early and way too soon predictions for next fall’s pre-season top-25 teams.

The process is fairly simple. So let’s break it down.

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Stories in the dailies today focus on some of the new guys on offense. First up, the soon to be highly scrutinized Tino Sunseri at QB.

“I’ve been prepared for this opportunity right now,” he said. “I think, the way spring ball has been going, it has been a learning experience for me every day. Whenever you are the No. 2, like I was last year, you aren’t really getting the reps and you don’t see things like a Greg Romeus rushing from the outside and different coverages.

“I feel like I’ve come a long way just even in this spring.”

Coaches haven’t officially installed Sunseri as the starter yet and aren’t likely to until closer to training camp, but they have referred to him as their current No. 1 and they have made it clear by the way Sunseri and Bostick have been used.

Although Sunseri can throw all the passes, has a strong arm, quick release and all the intangibles to be an excellent quarterback, the one question that seems to follow him is his height.

He is listed at 6 feet 2, but that seems to be a little bit of a stretch as he looks smaller when he is in the pocket.

“A bit.” Naturally any vertically challenged QB will bring up Drew Brees for comparison. That’s all fine. The issue will be Sunseri making good decisions and finding the seams to throw the ball. That and presumably the offense will be tweaked enough to allow him to roll out and move around a lot more to find openings to pass the ball.

I have faith that OC Cignetti is planning to operate that way, but that still depends on the offensive line being able to block in a slightly different way.

Next, the tight end spot, and replacing Dorin Dickerson.

“You can replace his position, but you can’t replace Dorin,” Cignetti said.

It’s a huge challenge for Dickerson’s successor to fashion a stat sheet that reads: 49 catches, 529 yards and 10 touchdowns.

More important, can the new starting tight end draw the attention of outside linebackers and strong safeties to force man coverage on flanker Jon Baldwin, who amassed 57 receptions for 1,111 yards and eight scores?

Mike Cruz, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound redshirt sophomore from Bishop McCort in Johnstown, is the most likely to earn the job.

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“There’s a lot of pressure, but you can’t let that show on the field,” Cruz said. “I just have to try to duplicate what they did on the field. I need to take something from Dorin and Nate and try to be a leader in the tight end room.

“I have to know my assignments. I just have to concentrate on playing ball.”

So far, Cruz has been pushed some in practice by Andrew Devlin and Brock DeCicco.

Devlin, a Mt. Lebanon product, is a transfer from Virginia. DeCicco, the brother of safety Dom DeCicco, redshirted last season.

“The tight end group is kind of like the interior of our offensive line,” Wannstedt said. “It’s a work in progress.”

All three: Cruz, Devlin and DeCicco were highly sought after TEs coming out of high school. It is not that they are lacking in talent and potential. They just aren’t athletic freaks. They are more along the lines of Nate Byham — who did rather well in the spot the year prior. I am not terribly worried about the TE spot in terms of performance or depth.

Looking for more creativity there, is not going to happen. That is why there is talk of using Ray Graham to catch some short passes and get in space. Find other ways to use the talent.