Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, has selected Portland Trail Blazers Director of College Scouting (formerly Acting GM) Chad Buchanan for one of its Success Stories alumni profiles. Buchanan, who played two sports at Simpson and graduated in 1995, talks a bit about the last few years with the Blazers and how Simpson helped prepare him for his job. ------------------------------- "It kind of fell apart for us," Buchanan says. "There’s definitely some luck involved." ... "It’s incredibly challenging," he says. "It’s fun, but there’s definitely a lot of pressure in professional sports. You’re evaluating personnel and trying to make the right decisions, because they’re very expensive decisions you’re making for your organization – and if you’re wrong on one or two, that can add up." ... "I think the one thing Simpson helped prepared me for is that you can’t sit in a classroom and hide," he says. "You have to interact with people and learn how to deal with different personalities. You have to be able to communicate and express yourself, which is critical for my job, dealing with coaches, agents, players and other executives. You can’t just be a number at Simpson like you can at a big school. You have to become somebody when you to go to a smaller school, and that’s really helped me with my job every day." ------------------------------- -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter