FSU returns 4 “starters” from an Elite 8 team, plus the 6th, 7th, and 8th man off the bench, plus they are adding a top 150 recruit who redshirted last year, plus they are adding a solid grad transfer at PG. (Trent Forrest didn’t technically start but played the most minutes at PG and was doubling up CJ Walker in minutes during the NCAAT—hence Walker’s decision to transfer).
Or, said another way, FSU returns their top 2 scorers, their leading assist man, their top 5 rebounders, their leading steals man, and 2 of their top 3 shot blockers.
VT returns every player except one from a team that finished two games above Syracuse in the conference and made the NCAAT. Plus, they also return Ty Outlaw, a sniper from 3, who missed all of last season with an injury. Not sure how you can say “they weren’t better than Cuse last year,” or that they “lost more.” They literally only lost 1 guy and they have plenty of firepower (Nickeil-Anderson, Ahmed Hill, Justin Robinson, Kerry Blackshear). They are ranked between 10 and 20 in basically every preseason poll right now.
Clemson returns 3 of 5 starters (and really 4 of 5 since Grantham got hurt midway through the year) from a team that went 25-10, finished tied for 3rd in the ACC last year (4 games ahead of Cuse), and made the Sweet 16.