Other than Rodney Dangerfield's "triple lindey" dive in "Back to School," all divers understand the perfect dive is unreachable.

While most college diving teams do not have the patience or unity to strive for perfection, the diving Hoosiers enjoy challenging the impossible.

"The best thing about diving is you always keep learning," sophomore Jon Repetti said. "Perfection is a tough goal to achieve. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication. And that's what we're trying to do."

Striving for success demands more than just wanting it. But with a family-type relationship between the divers -- junior Michael Collier, sophomores Tom Davidson, Ryan Kosanic and Repetti, and freshman Jason Graves -- and coach Dr. Jeff Huber, all efforts are enjoyable.

"We have a family relationship here. We are really close," Kosanic said. "Jeff's like a father figure to all of us. It makes practice that much more fun.

"And in everything, the atmosphere has everyone laughing and having a good time, but we're still working hard and getting the job done."

As a father figure, Huber gives encouragement and something for all of the divers to reach for.

"He has expectations for us, and we try to go by those expectations and try to fulfill them," Repetti said. "It's like a really good friendship, and someone's there trying to get you to your highest talent you can possibly be at."

For Huber, the family bond separates IU from other programs.

"I hear a lot of coaches that complain about their divers behind their back, and sometimes they are not always very complimentary," Huber said. "I think a lot of everybody. I enjoy coming to practice and look forward to it."

Another unique quality about the Hoosiers' divers is their dedication.

"(Our program is unique because) of our dedication to our training, our coach and our teammates," Repetti said.

Along with enjoying diving at IU and pushing themselves, the Hoosiers have also achieved success.

This season, Collier won the Big Ten Diver of the Year award while finishing first on the platform, second on the 1-meter and sixth on the 3-meter at the Big Ten Championships Feb. 26-27 in Minneapolis. He also set a new University of Minnesota pool record with 785.95 on the platform.

At the NCAA Championships, he finished sixth on the platform, fifth on the 1-meter and fourth on the 3-meter and achieved All-American status by reaching the finals in all events.

Davidson became the second IU diver in as many years to receive Diver of the Championship. Collier won it last year. At the Big Ten Championships, Davidson finished first on the 1-meter, second on the 3-meter and fourth on the platform. His highest finish at the NCAA's was 10th on the platform.

In addition, Huber won his second consecutive Big Ten Coach of the Year and his fourth award in the Big Ten.

Before Huber arrived at IU, Hobie Billingsley led the Hoosiers' diving prominence, but Huber does not want to be compared in any way.

"He did some great things, and we've done some good things, but I don't want to compare ourselves," Huber said. "What we want to do is just establish our own identity as a team."

To establish their own identity, the Hoosiers feel they need to be the best team in the country.

"We've trained really hard, and at the beginning of the year, we had goals on being the best team in the Big Ten and in the country," Repetti said. "And we're striving and continuing to strive to reach that goal. The future of Indiana diving is definitely on the rise."

When Davidson looked a few years ago at schools for diving, he saw the positive momentum IU's program was headed to.

"The diving program was on the rise," Davidson said. "The environment here is better when everyone's watching each other and patting each other on the back. Everyone's always pushing each other."

Throughout the season, the competition feared facing IU's divers.

"Our divers dove well, but we know IU's divers are probably the best diving team in the country," Purdue coach Dan Ross said following the IU-Purdue dual meet in February.

Cincinnati coach Monty Hopkins said after losing to IU in January,"We got swept in diving, and they have great divers. When they swept us -- that was the hardest thing to overcome."

The IU men's swimming coach was happy with the diving team's performance against Cincinnati.

"Take out the diving -- they whipped us from a score standpoint, but you can't take out diving because what they call this sport is swimming and diving," Coach Kris Kirchner said.

With the Indoor Nationals coming up in a few weeks and more competition around in the summer, the divers face the challenge of maintaining their excellence.

"It's always harder to hold on being the best team," Kosanic said. "That means we have to train that much harder because everyone else is out there trying to beat IU."