Season-ending losses breed vows such as the one A&M Consolidated boys basketball coach Rick German made 365 days ago. Seldom are those vows fulfilled as impressively as have the Tigers so far this season.

After Consol lost its bi-district game 58-38 to fourth-ranked DeSoto last year, German stood outside the dressing room and looked ahead to this season with grim determination.

"We're going to go to work for next year with the purpose of going deep in the playoffs," German said that night in Waco. "Getting to the playoffs is great, but it's not good enough."

Consol returns to the state playoffs looking capable of making the program's longest postseason run in years. The 20th-ranked Tigers (29-4), coming off their first outright district championship in 18 seasons, will play Longview (11-16) in a Class 5A bi-district game in Fairfield at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

None of these Tigers were born in 1989, the last time Consol won 30 games in a season. The impetus for their success was born in the dressing room at McLennan Community College after the loss to DeSoto.

"I thought we were good enough to beat them," German said. "I might be crazy, but that's what I thought. They went on a run and hit those 3's in the second quarter and pulled away from us.

"In the dressing room I told the boys that's not going to happen again. The boys have believed it from that day. I believe it and the staff believes it. That doesn't mean that we're not going to lose a playoff game, but we're not going to lose one like that."

The Tigers haven't lost many of any kind this season. Consol's nondistrict losses were to Pflugerville, North Crowley and Fort Bend Bush. North Crowley and Bush both finished the regular season ranked in the Top 10. The Tigers lost at Harker Heights during District 12-5A action, but bounced back for their first outright league title since 1994.

That is a major improvement after the Tigers went 17-15 last season and finished fourth in the district. It's not a major surprise, at least not to German.

"I think I shocked a couple of the kids when I told them before the season started that I expected 30 wins this season, knowing that we were only going to play 33 games [in the regular season]," German said.

German's great expectation sounded good to junior wing Josh Stewart, one of the returning starters with painful memories of the loss to DeSoto. However, Stewart wasn't sure about the height at which German set the bar.

"I thought we would work hard and do real well, but 30 wins seemed a little far-fetched," Stewart said.

The Tigers produced some positive reinforcement during winter break. Consol bounced back from a pool-play loss against Bush to win the Austin Westlake tournament championship with a 66-64 victory over Clear Lake, which is currently ranked 14th.

"There were a lot of very good teams in that Westlake tournament, and to be the champions really gave us a boost, a belief," senior post Jeremy Capps said. "I was a little uncertain [about winning 30 games] at first, but after our first couple of games I started to believe that was possible, that we had a chance to do something special."

Consol is led by 6-foot-6 senior guard Alex Caruso, who has signed to play for Texas A&M. The other veteran starters are junior forward Jimmie Gilbert and senior guard Quinton White.

The Tigers are 21-0 on the season when holding opponents to less than 50 points.

"We feel like we can play with anybody in this tournament," Stewart said. "We play strong defense and that can take us where we need to go."

German and his players vow not to be overconfident against Longview. The Lobos finished fourth in 11-5A with a 3-7 record and dropped their regular-season finale to DeSoto 72-25.

"I think the players are confident that we are going to play well," German said. "We are not overlooking anybody by any stretch of the imagination. I told the boys that if you look at records or who lost to who or whatever, that's foolish. It takes you away from what you have to do. If you look at those things we should be OK, but we have to prepare well."

NOTES -- The Consol-Longview winner will advance to the area round to face either Dallas Jesuit (25-6) or Lakeview Centennial (17-13) later this week. Jesuit finished second in 9-5A. Centennial, which reached the state final last season, is the third seed from 10-5A. ... Consol has won one playoff game in the last eight seasons, beating Round Rock McNeil in 2008.