The Boston Red Sox.

Drake’s 1968-69 NCAA Final Four team.

Tom Davis isn’t missing a link as he lays the groundwork for rebuilding the Bulldogs’ basketball program.

"If it’s possible for the Cubs and Red Sox to make the World Series, it’s possible for Drake basketball to get this thing going," Davis said today. "I don’t know if that’s a good analogy or not, but I’ve thought a lot about our problems here at Drake as I’ve watched Dusty Baker move into that Cubs job at the beginning of the season."

Davis, the winningest basketball coach in history at Iowa, has been hired to pump some life into a long-dormant Drake program. He continued with the Cubs theme with a joke.

"I’ve been looking for trades to find Mark Grudzielanek. Eric Karros and Aramis Ramirez, but I haven’t been able to pull that off," he said, referring to the ex-Dodgers and one of the ex-Pirates who have help make the Cubs a successful team in 2003.

"We do have some walk-ons, however, so that’s the best I’ve been able to do to complete that analogy," he said.

Some members of that 1968-69 team have long felt—right or wrong--that they didn’t receive enough recognition from the school for what they did. One reason given was that Coach Maury John left Drake for Iowa State after taking the Bulldogs to three successive NCAA tournaments.

Now Davis, thank goodness, is extending a hand.

"I want you involved with our program," Davis told Pulliam. "I want you to be the analyst on the radio broadcasts of our games, and I want you to hang around with our players. I want them to see you."

Said Pulliam of those comments: "I thought that was neat for him to do that."

Pulliam will work with new Drake play-by-play announcer Warren Swain, and said he wants the present players to chase the dream the 1968-69 team chased.

"I want these players to be able to dream, to be able to say, ‘You know, we can do that,’" Pulliam said. "Coach John of our 1968-69 team told me that I would be playing in an NCAA Final Four game before I graduated from Drake, and it happened."

The 1968-69 team will celebrate is 35^th anniversary with a reunion Dec.13 when Drake plays Southern Utah at the Knapp Center.

"Right now, starters Willie Wise, Willie McCarter, myself and Don Draper will be back," Pulliam said. "We haven’t found the fifth starter, Al Williams, yet. We’ve also lost Gary Zeller. Also coming back off that team are Rick Wanamaker, Dale Teeter, Jim O’Dea and Larry Sharp."

Pulliam is a longtime employee at Drake. He said he now is director of community relations for the school and is a senior fund-raiser.

"I love to sell the story of Drake," he said.

I asked him if he felt he has enough talent to be competitive this season, and he said, "I’ve asked myself the same question. In the backcourt, we’ve got some experience and talent. The guard situation is stronger than the front court. We just don’t have any big bodies—someone who’s going to get you seven or eight rebounds a game or take the ball to the rack.

"It didn’t take me long to see that. How much can you cover that up? That’s what I don’t know for sure. Some young guys don’t understand is how hard they have to work. My job is to show them. Some of the younger guys are actually out-working the veterans.

"I think there’s some hope. I like the players. I’m kind of curious to find out myself."