Brian Regan grew up on Highridge Street in the North Side, but make no mistake, this city kid has been around.

He's lived in Saltsburg, Latrobe, in Pittsburgh's north suburbs and in Slippery Rock.

He also called Worcester, Mass., and Hamilton, N.Y., home.

Such is the life of a basketball man -- but never has he felt at home the way he does now.

Regan, 42, was recently appointed the director of men's basketball operations at Pitt, accepting that position after a one-year stint as the program's video coordinator.

He has a combined 20 years of college coaching experience, coaching at Colgate, Assumption College in Massachusetts, Slippery Rock, LaRoche and Robert Morris. Prior to that, he was a graduate assistant at Pitt after graduating from St. Vincent College and The Kiski School.

Those are credentials that, undeniably, impressed coach Jamie Dixon when the Pitt boss first brought Regan aboard and then decided to elevate him to his new role.

"Brian has proved to be a valuable part of our program and has played a key role in our success," Dixon said. "He brings with him extensive experience at several different levels. He is also thrilled to be working at Pitt and in his hometown of Pittsburgh."

And while Slippery Rock's Morrow Fieldhouse when the Rock plays a non-conference game seems to be on the polar opposite end of the basketball spectrum than when Pitt is battling in the Big East tournament inside Madison Square Garden, Regan draws equally upon his experience from both places.

"Those road trips and those memories all have their place in what helped me get to this point," Regan said. "Everything was quite a lot of fun and helped give me experience that I draw upon every day.

"I remember driving from Hamilton, N.Y., to Washington, D.C., in a bus and the things that we encountered as a team at Colgate, and I learned from that.

"I remember being at Assumption College and learning things that I apply now and the same goes for Slippery Rock. Everything that I learned from all of those places has helped me."

And everything he learned from his dad surely helped him.

Regan's late father, Baldy, was a sports promoter, a district justice, a City Council member, one of Pittsburgh's most colorful people and an undisputed, undefeated champion of the North Side.

Baldy Regan died in Sept. 1995. At this time of his death, Pittsburgh's then-mayor, Tom Murphy, said of Mr. Regan, "Baldy was ... Mr. North Side. There was no one in the city who knew more people, both the richest and the poorest, and could talk to them as if they were the most important people in the world. There was no one who touched more kids and created more opportunity for them."

Brian Regan knows that everything he's accomplished -- not just this latest promotion -- has been shaped, in some way, by his father.

"Of course, both he and my mother have had a great influence on me in so many different ways," Regan said.

"It is hard to sit down and put into words all that my father has done for me and how profound his influence on my life has been.

"But, it is nice to be back in Pittsburgh and to go somewhere and, when his name is mentioned, hear someone talk about when he was involved in something my dad was involved in.

"To think back, he shaped me in many different ways as a person because of the kind of person he was."