Brian Kortan's confident Aggies ready to attack the Auburn Regional

After finishing as the runner-up at the SEC Championships, Texas A&M men's golf is headed to the Auburn Regional next week. During Thursday's edition of TexAgs Live, head coach Brian Kortan joined to detail the Aggies' postseason draw and more.

Key notes from Brian Kortan interview

• It's a pretty good start to the postseason. I feel good about our draw. The guys are ready for the postseason to be here, and it's a long, winding road to get here. You play all the way through August to now, pretty much nonstop. We're excited to get going.
   
• I haven't been part of all 50 postseason appearances at Texas A&M, but we're fortunate to have the athletes we have and the staying power we have. The program is definitely something to be proud of.
   
• The guys are doing a really good job. Matt Fast and I are there for support. We help. We have conversations. Still, the players are the guys who do the work, get in the dirt and figure it out. We recruit guys who will put in the effort. It's nice to see that work going in this direction at this time of the year.
   
• Auburn is the host. They're the defending national champions and are really good. UCLA comes from out west and has had a nice year. Georgia Tech has been really good over the years. There are really good teams. Our sport is deep. It speaks to the effort schools are giving to golf and the amount of good players being produced here and aboard that come to school.
   
• There are 13 or 14 teams at your regional, and the top five advance. They move on to the national championship.
   
• Auburn has had a good run of guys who have played high-level golf. There are other schools that have had that, and we've had it before. It's all about having a couple of guys who blossom and become great players. They're tough to beat right now, but I'm here for it.
   
• If you get to the TV part of the SEC Championships, it's great because it means you've been there the whole week. It's great for the guys. You don't get a chance to play on TV and be spotlighted like that very often, so for us to be in that position was really cool for them. It has been a few years since we've been in the final match. The guys really enjoyed that, and it makes them want it even more.
   
• Once Phichaksn Maichon got going, he was phenomenal. It took him a little bit, but we had a stretch of close to 60 holes without a bogey. He can get into a groove where golf comes to him well. Michael Heidelbaugh opened with a 61, and that's the first time I've ever had someone open a tournament with a 61. Aaron Pounds kicked in a couple of good things during match play, and then Wheaton Ennis was solid the whole week. We have a group that counts on each other a lot, and they do some good things.
   
• I hope I help them calm down in pressure situations. I hope I have that effect. I'm relaxed, but I'm an intense guy. I'm a bad loser, and I should be a better winner, where I can enjoy those more. A lot of the parents of our players were there, and they were like suffocating in the moment. My watch said my heartbeat was 83. It's perspective, life lessons and understanding I need to be there for them. I can't be frantic. I have to be there for them to know everything is alright and they can handle those moments.
   
• Losing in the final match stings more than I probably let on because I understand how hard it is to get there. There are 12 teams in the top 25 in our conference. The other sports are really good as well, but golf is one of the top ones in how it's represented nationally by the SEC. It's hard to get to the final, so I'm thankful for those moments and getting far enough in the tournament where you have a chance to win a trophy. I need to think longer and harder about how cool it is, but I'm on to the next one, which is regionals. Whether we had won or lost, that's where my head would have gone.
   
• Success leads to success. That was a successful week. You have to come back here and settle in with school and finals this week, but the level of belief and confidence in who they are and who they can be is pretty high. They are getting comfortable in those steps.
   
• We head out next Friday. Guys are finishing finals this week, and we'll get it together to attack that regional like we did the SEC Championships.