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 Joshua Tomaic from Lanzarote, Spain. Here are five burning questions with Joshua!  

What has been your advice to the freshmen and younger players heading into the season? 

"I want them to stay locked in and take it a step at a time. There's a lot of things that they still haven't seen that they still don't really know. They're stepping into the unknown. So it's important for them to just follow our lead - the older guys - and listen to what we have to say. Our coaches have a lot of knowledge, so listen to them. It's a great group, everyone's smart. They'll get the hang of it and they will flourish. I think if we stay locked in as a group, we're going to be fine."

What's different about this year's team?

"We really love each other and care for each other. I think our culture has kind of shifted as well. You see a ton of guys just coming in by themselves working out. You can come to the gym at 8:00 am or 11:00 pm and we have three or four guys getting shots up on our own. I think everybody really has this work ethic right now and I think it's really going to help us and nobody complains about anything. Everybody just gets to work and gets it done and we just push each other to get better."

What can you take from your experience these past 3 years and with this team and apply to this season?

"All those hours, lessons and hard days will pay off. All those hard games that we lost where we were so close - we just need to take all of that and create this ball of confidence and use that as motivation to attack this season. So whatever it might be, I'm going to be ready for the occasion and I'm gonna have fun as well."

What's something you've learned or discovered about yourself as a person since coming to Maryland?

"It's not even basketball anymore. During my time here at Maryland I've met a lot of different people that have helped gain a different perspective of life and have helped me grow. They help me think about different things and approach situations differently. They taught me how to handle different situations whether it's in basketball or life. I also learned that life is a lot about networking. My mom used to always tell me 'talk to this guy, talk to that guy', now I know that's something really important. You can know a lot but it's more about who you know. I like people sharing their own knowledge and I love talking to other people. Another lesson is to not take anything for granted. It's important to be humble about everything you get because this is not forever. There's a lot of people out there in this world that don't have anything close to what we have, so it helps me a lot with keeping me staying locked in and being grateful."

What do you miss about life back home that you can't get in the U.S. or just isn't the same here?

"That's easy. The beach, the sun and just the good weather. There's not a day where it's going to rain, the next day its going to snow and then the next day it's sunny again like here in Maryland. That's something I don't like at all (laughs). I love it here, but the beach is something I truly, truly miss. I'll always be a beach guy."