Throughout the fall, umterps.com will be featuring a different men's basketball player (or players) each week leading up the start of the 2019-20 campaign. Be sure to follow along with additional player-specific content on Maryland basketball's social media platforms on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for more on each player. Today's featured player is Ricky Lindo Jr. from Washington, D.C.. Here's five burning questions with Ricky. 

What part of game do you think you've made the most improvement on from last season? 

My jump shot, and also getting stronger to get down with the bigs and just working on my body and that jump shot. It's about putting in the time, getting my mechanics right, taking less time to get it off. Fixing my elbow, staying forward, making sure its not too high or low.

You made some big defensive plays last season, how much pride do you take on the defensive side of the ball?

Ever since I started playing basketball I've been a good rebounder. It's mostly been emphasized in my head, 'rebound the ball, rebound the ball' so I think I carried that onto now and I just have a knack for rebounding and I think thats going to help the team, help me, and help win a lot of games.

As a local guy, what does it mean to you to be able to put on a Maryland jersey and represent your home state?

As a local guy it means a lot, kids look up to me in my neighborhood and high school. To put on a Maryland jersey is just amazing, I grew up a Maryland fan. Glad I came here, I'm 20 minutes away from the house, my mom comes up every once in a while or I go home for the weekend. It's great and I love it here.

We noticed you've cut the hair for this upcoming season, will this new look make you more aerodynamic?

Well I'm growing it back so that's the future for that, but I cut it off because I wanted to start over. I wanted to get the curly in there. So I'm taking better care of it, I'm growing it out right now so it's not looking as good as it should be but by midseason it should be back in full form.

Are short shorts officially back? 

Yes they are, I'm bringing them back and sticking with it. I got the short shorts don't need to roll them anymore. They're staying, they're here to stay. I started wearing them my junior year of highschool and stuck with them ever since.