There's a kid in a every classroom. The one who has all the potential and brains in the world, but who just can't seem to put it all together.

Every marking period, he comes home with a report card full of C-minuses. Every big test he takes, he gets a 79. His teachers, friends and parents know he can be great at anything, but he just doesn't seem to want it enough.

At times, that has been the 2009-10 version of the Michigan State basketball team. But they seem to have "gotten it" at the right time. With all the things that have gone on this season, the Spartans are back in the Final Four. For the second year in a row. And sixth time in 12 years. No school in the country - not Duke. Not North Carolina. Not Kansas - can match that.

Many people have said the 2005 team's run to St. Louis was Izzo's best coaching job. With yesterday's one-point win over Tennessee in - ironically - St. Louis, that has just been topped.

That 2005 team FEATURED three seniors. This team' senior leader, Raymar Morgan, who has played well the last couple weeks, more often than not looks like he's been sedated.

The 2005 team was nowhere near as talented as this group, either. This group started the season as the number 2 team in the country and has seen it's share of peaks and valleys.

This team: which, at some point, has seen all of its wing players miss games, be benched, suspended or kicked out of practice.

This team: a team that dropped its biggest non-conference games (at UNC and Texas).

This team: the same team that was rumored to have a group full of guys who had been feeling themselves too much.

This team: a team that saw a 9-0 start in conference and a three-game lead vanish with the twist of Kalin Lucas' ankle.

This team: the same Spartan squad that has had its starting backcourt (Lucas and Chris Allen) on the court TOGETHER for less than 10 minutes this entire tournament run.

This team: a group that has essentially become a M.A.S.H. unit with the loss of Lucas to a torn Achilles, power forward Delvon Roe playing on one knee, and Allen playing on a foot that may need to be lopped off once the season is over.

This team: which NOBODY picked to make the Sweet Sixteen - even with a healthy Lucas.

This team: where a sleepover (inside the Breslin Center) and a Come to Jesus Moment (for junior guard Durrell Summers) was needed prior to the start of the tournament.

This team: where it's most athletically-gifted player, Summers, finally "got it" at the perfect time and has been MSU's go-to guy this entire tournament.

This team: which has seen several players step up in the absence of its floor general into roles not a lot of people thought they would be able to handle.

This team: which has come together and actually became a team and not a group of individuals.

This team: which has guys who don't mind passing up a shot late in the clock, but also has guys who WANT that last shot.

This team: which has learned to play unselfishly and execute phenomenally at the end of games.

This team: and this coach, who deserves much more credit nationally than he gets.

This team: and its coach, who may be the best tournament coach of this generation.

This team: going back to a place where one of the program's finest moments happened 10 years ago to the day of its Final Four game against Butler.

This team: still fighting. And still playing.