Ryo Sakurai

His motto is "Don’t do bad things to people that have been done to you".
His favorite food is Loquat.
His hobby is drawing manga.
His specialty is making character bento.

He is a member of the school's physical education committee.
His favorite subject is art.
His ideal type of girl is gentle and sweet.
In his free time, he practices tracing outlines with ink.
He is an only child.
He can't stand arguments.
He started playing basketball after reading about the game in a manga and thinking, “That's cool.”
His best move is quick shots.
His main rival is Hyuga.

Sakurai is the shortest player among those who play the shooting guard position.
Compared to the other players, Sakurai weighs the least. He is even lighter than Akashi and Furuhata, even though both of those players are shorter than Ryo.
His fans say he resembles the character Sogo Okita from “Gintama” .
According to kanji analysis, his surname (桜 “sakura” and 井 “i”) can be interpreted as “self-sacrifice” and “submission.” His first name (良 ‘Ryo’) means “a good, kind person.”

Sakurai is known for his quick-release three-pointers. This is just his regular shot (that is extremely accurate), but releases the ball very quick, throwing his defense off balance. This gives him a great advantage, because the defense has a hard time blocking it because it is so quick (a normal shot would always be blocked, with his posture). When Sakurai starts to behave differently, in a way similar to Junpei Hyūga's clutch ability, Sakurai's shot gets quicker and better.

Although such a shot is normally hard to imitate, Ryōta Kise was able to copy Sakurai's move in Kaijō High's match against Too Academy.

Sakurai is quite capable at stealing, as he stole the ball multiple times in Tōō Academy's matches against Kaijō High and Seirin High.

Sakurai is a kind sensitive young man. He apologizes profusely for anything and everything, and often will not stop until someone manages to calm him down. Even when he shoots his three-pointers, he whispers sorry. Sakurai has gone so far as to apologize for being alive, causing Imayoshi to coin him Tōō's kamikaze captain.

As a result of his personality, Sakurai is easily flustered and allows himself to be bullied, usually by Aomine, who often steals his bento or forces Sakurai to bring food for him (Aomine later names Sakurai as the teammate he is probably closest to due to his good bentos). Due to his sensitivity, Sakurai is also unusually observant of the moods of the people around him.

While his teammates put up with his overly apologetic nature, Sakurai's personality annoys some of his opponents, namely Hyūga, who nicknames him the apologetic mushroom.

Like Hyūga, Sakurai has a clutch personality, which first reveals itself during the first round of the Winter Cup. He switches to this personality whenever there is competitive outside shooting involved, be it while he is playing or watching a game. In this state, Sakurai is competitive, aggressive and arrogant, going as far as to tell Hyūga that he is going to win, because he is obviously better. According to Imayoshi, this personality manifests itself because Sakurai takes pride in his ability as a shooting guard and hates losing in this respect.
Sakurai slowly loses his characteristic stutter and his habit of apologizing.

Sakurai has short, light brown hair and brown eyes. Most of the time, he holds himself diffidently, hunching his shoulders and often clutching onto something nervously. His posture becomes more confident while he is playing. Like Hyūga, he has a clutch personality, indicated by his signature pout. During games, he wears the Tōō jersey with the number 9.

Ryo Sakurai - is Too Academy's first-year shooting guard.