Busting Brackets
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AAC Basketball: 5 biggest questions heading into 2019-20 season

By Ben Andreatta

ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 11: The AAC Championship trophy to be presented to the Cincinnati Bearcats after the final game of the 2018 AAC Basketball Championship against Houston Cougars at Amway Center on March 11, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 11: The AAC Championship trophy to be presented to the Cincinnati Bearcats after the final game of the 2018 AAC Basketball Championship against Houston Cougars at Amway Center on March 11, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /
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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Aubrey Dawkins #15 of the UCF Knights dunks the ball against the Virginia Commonwealth Rams in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: Aubrey Dawkins #15 of the UCF Knights dunks the ball against the Virginia Commonwealth Rams in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

Can UCF recover from the roster departures?

Not a lot of good news for UCF this offseason. BJ Taylor, Tacko Fall, Aubrey Dawkins, and Terrell Allen are all out the door. Collin Smith is the top returner for the Knights this year as he’ll look to improve over the summer and play a big role for head coach Johnny Dawkins squad next year. He’s the only starter that’s back this year and one of only two guys returning from their top eight leading scorers. So where are all of those minutes and points going to come from this year?

It wasn’t exactly a stellar recruiting class this year for UCF but the addition of the No. 1 JUCO center, Avery Diggs, is a positive. It seems like the Knights will have good depth this year down low, with the 6-11 Smith, and now the 6-10 Diggs. After that, Coach Dawkins is going to have to look to the guys coming back to fill the rest of those minutes. It’s going to be a baptism by fire for a lot of guys at UCF this year and looks to be a tough year for them.

The only two really notable non-conference games for UCF are Miami and Oklahoma. That early game with Miami could tell a lot about what kind of team UCF is going to have this year. Outside of those two, it’s going to be hard for UCF to add quality wins to their resume, they’ll need to do extremely well in conference play, make a run in the conference tournament and likely win one of those two non-conference games just to even have a chance of making it to the tournament again.