PROVIDENCE –– To say that Keno Davis’ life is a bit upside down right about now probably isn’t being fair. It’s worse.

Since Davis was hired as Providence College’s new basketball coach on April 15, he has fought through a bundle of emotions. Elation with his new job is probably first. Then quickly come confusion, sadness, excitement and uncertainty, all in no particular order.

“It’s crazy,” Davis said by phone this week from Iowa, “but it’s exciting, too. The excitement of the people in Providence is great to see, but right now I have a lot of balls in the air.”

Davis has created a Des Moines-to-Providence shuttle that he’ll wear out for the next month. He’ll spend the weekdays in Rhode Island settling into a new program and then fly to Iowa for the weekends, where he’ll cut his ties to Drake University and prepare for a move to the Big East with his wife and young son. He hopes to be settled in Rhode Island sometime in June.

Besides those personal issues, the transition into a new coaching job, especially one half a country away, is a major challenge. Davis says he needs time to assess the talent the Friars have returning, jump into the always-swirling recruiting game, hire a staff, schedule games for 2008-09 and prepare to win next season.

The most important chore is hiring a staff. Two of Keno Davis’ assistants at Drake –– Chris Davis and Rodell Davis –– were recruiting for PC last weekend and are apparently taking jobs here. PC apparently won’t announce any staff additions until Keno Davis has settled on all four of his assistants. Chris and Rodell Davis would fill two of the three coaching/recruiting positions. Those two men were born in the Midwest and could significantly expand PC’s recruiting base. Keno Davis has said he’d like the third hole to be plugged by a coach with extensive connections in the East so the Friars maintain a connection to the New England prep schools and, to a lesser degree, the New York-New Jersey area.

A fourth staff member, the director of basketball operations, is also needed. Kevin Kurbec, a PC grad who filled that role for Tim Welsh, remains a candidate to join Davis.

As for the players, sophomore guard Dwain Williams has been given a release from his scholarship and is free to talk with other schools. Williams was the third-leading scorer (11 ppg) on last year’s team and owned the highest 3-point shooting percentage on the team. Davis would not say if Williams is leaving the school but did say he “could” have an open scholarship for the 2008-09 season. That would occur only if a current player leaves the Friars’ program.

“I have not spoken with him,” Davis said. “We could have a scholarship open and guards are really important in our system, but we’ll look at all of our options for that spot.”

Finding a competent point guard to join returning junior Sharaud Curry at this point of the recruiting cycle will be difficult. Davis may have to go the junior-college route if he considers point guard depth a priority.

Davis did say that his chief recruiting needs lie in the class of 2009. PC will lose five seniors after next season, and those players represent the core of the program. Replenishing the roster will be his staff’s goal over the course of the summer.

While Curry continues to recover from foot surgery, senior forward Geoff McDermott is nursing a sprained knee. It is the same knee that required minor surgery last summer and needed to be drained of fluid at times in January and February. He could be running again within a month.

On the scheduling front, PC will play at Boston College and host three Rhode Island schools: URI, Brown and Bryant, which is moving up to Division I next season. The Friars will open the season during Thanksgiving at the ESPN-sponsored Anaheim Classic, along with Cal-Fullerton, Arizona State, Wake Forest, UTEP, Baylor, Charlotte and one other unannounced team.

kmcnamar@projo.com