Two years after their first meeting, Walton — who on Saturday will live his dream of playing in the Final Four — calls Brown “the guy who is responsible for (the team’s) turnaround.”

“He turned this team around, as far as with the spirit and telling us how to be emotionally,” Walton said. “What he did for this team can’t even be put into words.”

Lost in the dark

The Spartans were reeling March 14, the day they lost to Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament. Not only did they lose out on a chance to potentially earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but the whole season had simply been a mess.

MSU had dealt with a preseason knee surgery on freshman forward Delvon Roe, a player who head coach Tom Izzo admitted they were not a top 10 team without.

Senior center Goran Suton had knee surgery in November. Without Suton, North Carolina dismantled the Spartans by 35 points at Ford Field in front of a national television audience.

Once Suton was back, junior forward Raymar Morgan came down with mononucleosis.

Days before the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Spartans looked to Brown for help.

“When they were beaten by Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament, that’s when they really needed me, because there were other things they were being challenged with,” said Brown, 55, who has been a pastor for four years. “They brought me in, put me in the locker room and closed the door because (the coaches) felt the team would talk to me.”

In the closed locker room, with just Brown and the players, Brown wanted to tell the team two things.

The first was to encourage them and talk to them about basketball.

“But also, I wanted to give them some life-changing situations that, yes, this is basketball, but you can apply this to your life,” Brown said. “I told them God is setting them up. See, right now they’re praying and asking God about stuff with basketball, but what God is showing them now they also can apply with the same principles in life.”

Since that speech, “Pastor Jesse,” as he is called by players and coaches, has met with the team the past three Tuesdays to pray and talk. He sends text messages to players. They have dropped by his house to talk about problems. Before road trips, he gives them spiritual messages to meditate on. He also leads the pre-game prayer, although Walton asked and was granted that duty before the win over Louisville.

Brown’s purpose

Brown isn’t forcing faith or belief in God to the team.

He doesn’t constantly preach the Ten Commandments or tell the players they can’t go out after games. He doesn’t tell them how to act with girls. He doesn’t play the role of God’s designated babysitter for the MSU men’s basketball team. (The closest he’s come to telling someone to act was after a game against Minnesota last season, when he overheard Walton constantly dropping F-bombs. “I’m not saying you can’t get upset or can’t say things,” Brown said of what he told Walton. “But I said just know that to the people who are watching, you’re sending a message. … Just remember why they brought you to Michigan State.”)

Brown simply sees himself as an avenue for the players to come closer in their relationship with God.

“I look at it like this — and I don’t want to get spiritual on you — but the Bible talks about how no man comes to God, instead God draws him,” Brown said. “And even though he’s using the springboard as basketball, God is drawing them in and He’s just using me because I’m something that’s tangible, that they can touch and they can see. God is always trying to draw all of us in all walks of life, He’s even trying to get to you. It’s just a matter of whether or not you listen.”

Is it sincere?

After MSU beat Louisville to advance to the Final Four on Sunday, Walton dropped to the Lucas Oil Stadium floor. On his knees, midsection bent over with his green jersey pulled over his head, Walton was a scene that could make a grown man cry.

When the moment he had worked so hard for finally become a reality, the one thing running through his mind was God.

“I was just praying, praying, praying,” said Walton, who added he had been praying since 7 a.m. that morning. “I’ve been praying so much lately, God probably wants me to stop praying.”

Walton’s words and the role Brown has played with the team brings up an interesting question with the role of God in pop culture.

Whose faith is real and whose isn’t?

“Sometimes you see these superstars and celebrities say, ‘I first want to thank God,’ but if you listen to their record it’s ‘You mother f’n, son of a …,’” Brown said. “It doesn’t line up.”

Brown said he doesn’t believe that’s the case with the Spartans, and the players insist the same.

In speaking with Walton, it is undeniable his faith is real. The same goes for senior center Idong Ibok, whose mother is a minister in Nigeria.

When asked if the faith displayed by Walton is present throughout all 16 players on the team, Ibok’s response left no doubt that it’s genuine.

“Yes, more so now than ever,” Ibok said. “It’s been a recognition that it’s all been the work of God and the blessings of God that has taken us this far this season. … Religion is above all in everything. There’s no way we do anything in our lives without having God present there.

“That’s something that we recognize as a team and that’s something Pastor Jesse has talked to us about, and as you can see it’s helped us grow and bond as a team the past couple of weeks. We’re still going and talking to him and we’re going to rely on God this weekend.”