Lessons from the Hardwood

College basketball season is upon us, and I'm happy to see that Tobacco Road is 7, 8, 9, and 10 in the Coaches' Poll. Basketball is a religion in portions of the south, and, like any religion, it can offer lessons about life and leadership. I'd like to take a moment to recall a moment of tribulation from the gospel of Ryan, in the hopes that we can all learn something from my shortcomings.

In my last year at NC State, I was entrusted with the position of Chair of the Student Affairs Committee, a job which carried with it the solemn responsibility of athletic ticket distribution. As basketball season rolled around, it was up to me to determine which distributions should have campouts and how those campouts should be conducted. As the date for the State-Carolina game approached, my committee began planning the campout for those precious tickets. Having handled one already that season for a lower profile game, we felt confident in our organization, and we focused most of our efforts on securing entertainment for the campers, rather than considering the wherewithal of our basic arrangements.

It was a disaster. Team success had brought demand, and the original line-up process hinted at failures to come. Overwhelmed by a crush of students, the procedure for assigning line spots dragged out over hours. When spots had been assigned, we found that the campsite was inadequate for the number of campers who'd shown up. Shouting matches broke out over line spots and over our inability to project who would and would not receive tickets, as we'd not appropriately checked the number available for students. As day turned to night, close quarters, frustration, beer, and poor management of rules for open fires led to mayhem. Property was destroyed, students and fire-fighters assaulted, and the day of distribution found thousands of students angry at not receiving tickets they'd been told they would based on our poor ticket accounting.

The days and weeks that followed were filled with recriminations and repercussions. Campout, one of the great student traditions of our school, was cancelled for the foreseeable future. What faith there was in the ability of students to self-govern was lost. And this public servant, having failed spectacularly to do his duty, took himself out of student government for the remainder of his college career. Plus, we lost to Carolina.

So what's the lesson? At 21 I learned that you cannot plan any big event without asking hard questions about every aspect, every contingency. I failed because I failed to imagine possible difficulties, but I know now, and I won't repeat that mistake. Last night, John Stewart played a clip of Paul Wolfowitz testifying before someone or another, saying he could not imagine that it would take more troops to secure Iraq than to invade. As news organizations report that CIA cables are calling the situation in Iraq more troublesome than commonly thought, it deserves asking, why didn't the Bush Administration take time to ask the hard questions? To imagine the difficulties? Had they never been called to account for past failures? Perhaps that's the risk in electing someone whose life has been so insulated from hardship.

Go Wolfpack.