ACC Basketball: Top returning player for each team in 2019-20

Along with outstanding young freshmen, don’t overlook the returning talent for ACC Basketball. Here’s a look at the best for each program.

Each season in the increasingly common one-and-done era of college basketball, the best teams normally experience constant turnover. The top teams in ACC Basketball, arguably the most competitive in the NCAA,  suffer the most from this compared to its lesser conference foes. Success often translates to the NBA, and it’s almost become an expectation in 2019.

That, paired with the seniors who have graduated, often leads to teams relying on a younger player to step up and become a leader. It seems like each year teams are forced to find a new go-to scorer, and very rarely is it a newcomer. Oftentimes it’s a player who knows the system and has put in the work over the last couple of years.

Virginia Tech lost its top five returning scorers from a season ago, there’s no more Zion Williamson terrorizing the ACC and only one starter returns to North Carolina. Even Syracuse and Clemson, the ACC’s middle-of-the-pack teams, lost its top two players.

Which players are expected to step up and lead some of these new-look rosters? Who will Virginia rely on as it looks to remain at the top despite its three-headed monster of Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy and De’Andre Hunter heading for the NBA?

Here’s a breakdown of each ACC team’s top returning player for the 2019-20 season, starting in reverse order of last year’s standings. These are the players that will be relied on heavily to come up clutch in crunch time and pull off big wins en route to a hopeful NCAA Tournament berth.