East Lansing, Mich. - Gabe Brown has been an energetic, entertaining, team-oriented flier for four years.

But he’s never been as lively as he was during No. 10-ranked Michigan State’s 79-67 victory against Nebraska on Wednesday night at the Breslin Center. And he’s never been a jumping jack of all trades like he was against the Huskers.

He scored 14 points to go with five rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots. (The official box score has him with four rebounds, but he had at least one high-wire offensive board that resulted in a second-chance 3-pointer for Tyson Walker which gave Michigan State a 44-39 lead).

Don’t frown on his 6-of-15 shooting. He’s the guy who rises up to fire shots when the shot clock is under :03 seconds. At 6-foot-8, with his leaping ability, high release, and quick trigger, he’s the guy you want in a bail-out predicament.

Those are low-percentage situations, and it will hurt his shooting stats when he has no choice but to rise and fire when the shot clock is about to expire. But it's a part of the sport, and every team needs a guy like that. Know this: the opponent doesn't breathe easy when he aims and fires.

The end-of-clock bail-out shot is one of a growing list of things that you can trust Gabe Brown to do well. But it's just a small part of his usefulness.

Wednesday's game against Nebraska highlighted his high-RPM repertoire.

“I thought that was Gabe’s best game in a Spartan uniform if you look at everything he did,” said Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo. “Gabe Brown was the brightest spot.”

He was a pest as as weakside help defender. He owned loose balls, flew to the rim for rebounds and oop jams, and was eager to make the extra pass to set up teammates for open shots. I charted him with at least five deflections, not counting the steals.

Throw in some hockey assists and even some huddle barking at Marcus Bingham during a time out, and Gabe Brown had a full night.

Despite his great vertical and straight-line athleticism, his lateral movement on defense has been a little wonky in the past. But in this game, his help defense as an off-ball, weakside player made him a glue guy extraordinaire.

His impact as a help defender is new ground for Brown. That’s never been a strength of his. Never been something he set out to do.

But it became an area of emphasis in recent days. And he just happens to have the frame, burst and tail-wagging dutifulness to turn it into instant gold.

Anyone remember when Morris Peterson became a great defender kind of overnight? Part of it was just a matter of Pete figuring it out, and putting his terrific physical tools to the task.

I don’t think Brown will become a great on-ball defender. But he hit a different stride for the Spartans in this game as a help defender, and it’s such a valuable component to winning basketball.

“There were times when he looked Draymond-ish where he didn’t get the steal, but he stopped some things from happening just because he was juking and jiving and all over the court,” Izzo said. “God, it was fun to watch.”

Brown was coming off a pair of games in which he scored 20 or more points for the first time in his career.

He’s becoming a 30-plus minute per game guy for the first time in his career.

It makes me think back to some pretty good Spartan players who became great as seniors.

Anyone remember A.J. Granger in his first three seasons? He was solid, but he wasn’t a starter. But I’ll bet you remember when he scored a career-high 19 to help save Michigan State against Iowa State in the Elite Eight, right?

Anyone remember Goran Suton in his first four seasons, including his redshirt year? He had some skill. Wasn’t very intense. Drove Izzo kind of crazy.

When Suton was injured and in street clothes for the early season game against North Carolina at Ford Field in December of 2008, Izzo put him on a bus and sent him back to East Lansing. Thought he wasn’t focused enough, even as an injured reserve. Thought he was a distraction. Bye-bye.

Four months later, Suton was a slick, stunning shot maker in lifting Michigan State past Louisville in the Elite Eight. He was MVP of the 2009 Midwest Regional.

Peterson was MVP of the Midwest Regional in 2000. Izzo once left him off the team bus to the airport for a tournament in Maui during Pete’s redshirt year. Wasn’t serious enough.

Brown has never been accused of lacking intensity or focus. Izzo has never considered sending him home from a road trip. The little spat they had at halftime of the UCLA game last year was just two guys with similar levels of intensity and desire, trying to hard-knuckle a path to victory.

Brown is a guy who has just needed to be dialed into the proper coordinates with the proper timing and maturation. Those things seem to be lining up for the communications major from Belleville.

The reason I bring up Brown in comparison to the 2000 version of Pete and the 2009 version of Suton is because we never would have known what those guys were capable of if they hadn’t had their senior year to write those glorious chapters.

Same thing with Draymond Green. We think of him as an iconic NBA champion, an Olympic gold medalist. We think of him as a first-team All-American as a senior at Michigan State in 2012, Big Ten Player of the Year, and the NABC National Player of the Year.

But what about his first three seasons at Michigan State? He was good. But he wasn’t great. He was third-team All-Big Ten as a junior. He started only three games as a sophomore.

Think about the jump he made as a senior. Unreal.

How about Denzel Valentine?

As a junior, he was third-team All-Big Ten. As a sophomore, he averaged 8 points per game. He wasn’t great. But he was on his way toward becoming the Denzel we remember, whether we realized it or not.

As a senior, Valentine was Big Ten Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-American.

Too often, our best players in college basketball never see their senior season. But when they do, it can be an explosion.

I’m not saying Gabe Brown is headed toward those type of accolades. But after this game, I'm wondering if we are witnessing the type of jump during a senior year that we have seen from some of the program’s recent greats.

Don't look now, but Brown's offensive numbers are kind of nice. He's averaging 14.5 points per game and shooting a consistent 40 percent from 3-point range (he was right at that rate against Nebraska, at 2-of-5 from beyond the arc).

No one really saw those explosions coming from Suton, Valentine or Green. But this stuff from Brown against Nebraska was a confluence of horsepower, manpower, and man hours mixed with unique effervescence.

His behind-the-back dribble in transition on his way to that dunk?

His sprint back on defense to block a shot late in the first half to rescue what seemed to be a sure turnover for touchdown for Nebraska?

All these other players and coaches were out there wringing with anxiety about this business of college basketball. Trying had, failing, trying again, frowning, yelling, exerting.

And here was No. 44 hitting 3-pointers, swatting shots, cramming dunks, running around with a smile like he was playing with friends at the park.

“He was having fun,” Izzo said. “He was having energy. He was playing hard.”

He’s kind of like a wind-up toy. This week, Izzo and analyst Mike Garland wound him up with a new focus.

“We were a little disappointed in Gabe last week because he wasn’t bringing it defensively,” Izzo said.

No one was bringing it defensively last week. Michigan State was horrid with its defensive awareness away from the ball against High Point. Horrid.

The Spartans were sluggish against Northwestern’s ball screens and actions in the first half on Sunday. But they tightened it up in the second half and played well on defense against the Wildcats.

Then the Spartans flew back to East Lansing on Sunday evening. The coaches got in the film room. Corrections were discussed Sunday night. Then came more film and practice on Monday.

This team was finally back into mid-season form in terms of having a weekend game, then an early-week prep, then a mid-week game against Nebraska. First time they’ve had that kind of a routine in weeks, after a spotty December schedule.

There was some rust against High Point. After two games in the past week, the rust is subsiding and the legs are fueled up and fresh.

MIke Garland came into the basketball office on Tuesday morning and went straight to Izzo with a discovery.

“I’ve got something to show you,” Garland told Izzo.

Garland cued up a tape of Gabe Brown highlights from MSU’s game against UConn on Thanksgiving Day.

“I looked at the tape and I’m telling you Gabe played so much harder,” Izzo said. “We talked about it and we showed it to Gabe.”

That footage reminded Gabe Brown of the type of racehorse agitator he can be. He was coming off the two best offensive games of his college career, but this hidden treasure from the tournament in The Bahamas re-expanded his basketball horizons.

“He wants to be a complete player,” Izzo said. “He is starting to handle the ball better, starting to make better passes.”

Izzo and Garland set out to improve MSU’s team defense this week. They felt Gabe Brown could be a big component in that quest.

“We really worked hard on getting our hands on the ball,” Izzo said. “Active hands, that is one thing we have tried to do. Mike (Garland) was talking to me about it in the film room today; that is an area we have to be improving. We have really tried to hammer on that the last week and a half.”

They hammered, and Gabe Brown is a key nail.

Marcus Bingham has been a difference-making defensive player most of this season. Now, the other senior on the team, Gabe Brown, is suddenly expanding his worth, too.

This help-side defense thing? Gabe Brown took to it like Rodman.

“That’s a credit to my coaches and teammates,” Brown said. “They are encouraging me to play more defense and being in the gaps more. I feel like I did a good job with that. I messed up in some areas, but I’m just happy that I worked on completing the things I needed to do for us to get the dub.”

Dude.

Is this guy a basketball angel or what?

But here’s the filter I want to put on this excitement for a moment. I think there’s a chance that Gabe Brown just had the proper, perfect amount of basketball octane in his system for this game at this juncture. These guys are so well-rested from a sporadic December. These Big Ten games are important. Michigan State is in first place in the conference, and was playing its first Big Ten home game since Dec. 11. The legs were fresh, and this experienced, energized senior named Gabe Brown hit the court like it was his personal drag strip.

My question: Can he make it a habit? When the dog days set in, in February, he might not quite have the juice in his legs to do the things as brilliantly as he did on this night.

Or maybe he will.