EDMONTON

Ben Millaud-Meunier doesn’t sugar-coat it.

If his St. Francis Red Flash don’t win the Northeast Conference championship this season, it “would be one of the most disappointing things that’s ever happened to me in my basketball career.”

On the other hand, if they do, it would be a fairytale the likes of which can only be authored in March.

The NEC tournament begins Wednesday, when the fifth-seeded Red Flash take on Mount St. Mary’s in a quarter-final. Three wins separate St. Francis from achieving Millaud-Meunier’s goal and advancing to the NCAA Tournament, where they would be Cinderella at the Big Dance.

“I came here because it was a program that’s definitely on the bottom of everybody’s radar and bottom of the league and something that I wanted to change,” the junior guard from Montreal said. “Now this year we’ve been able to turn around and got people talking about this program and got it on the rise, and that’s really what I came for.”

There is neither enough pages in a newspaper or bandwidth on a website to do justice to the story of the Millaud-Meunier, a junior guard from Montreal, and his basketball teammates at this tiny university in Loretto, Penn. But until Disney buys the movie rights, here’s the Coles Notes version.

It has been 24 years since the Red Flash made their only appearance in March Madness. They’ve just snapped a decade-long slump of not finishing in the top five of the NEC standings, including a run of four seasons from 2006 to 2009 when they were dead last. Between 2011 and 2014, St. Francis never had more than two seniors in any given year. Last year they had none.

Three years ago, when the Red Flash were struggling trough another season near the bottom of the NEC standings, Millaud-Meunier was starring for the defending Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association champion Vanier Cheetahs.

“Before I came all I heard was, ‘This teammate was leaving,’ and ‘These guys are leaving,’ and so on and so forth,” said Millaud-Meunier, whose dream of playing NCAA hoops led him to St. Francis, where he found kindred spirits in several other young players.

“We all had the same vision and we all wanted to go to March Madness and we looked at each other and saw the potential of this team,” the 23-year-old recalls. “That group of us, seven or eight guys, said ‘OK, there’s this great chemistry off the court and we’re just starting to learn how to play together, down the road in two or three years we can be pretty good.’ ”

In Millaud-Meunier’s freshman season, 2012-13, the Red Flash finished with an overall record of 5-24. Last year they qualified for the NEC tournament and won their first post-season road game since 1986. This season St. Francis hit the 15-win mark for the first time in 10 years, and posted a pair of wins over power-conference teams, Rutgers and Duquesne.

The Red Flash certainly aren’t favoured to win NEC tournament, which will have its championship game on March 10, but what’s to say they can’t make the next big step?

“We know the history,” Millaud-Meunier said. “At one point our passcode to our locker room was 1991 because that was the last time a team from St. Francis went to the (NCAA) tournament, and we wanted to be that team to change that.

“I think that’s exciting. It’s a chance to leave your marks on the history books of this school. We’ve already done some amazing things, but I think the cherry on the sundae would be to win a conference championship.”

brian.swane@sunmedia.ca

@SunBrianSwane

BIG GAME

Stanford at Arizona, 2pm MT Saturday, CBS

Senior centre Stefan Nastic of Thornhill, Ont., and the Cardinal visit the Wildcats at the McKale Center in Tucson where they'll look to upset the championship contenders in the Pac-12 regular season finale.

TOP CANADIANS

Joe De Ciman, Colorado State, Junior/Guard

18 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals in 72-56 win vs. San Jose State on Feb. 25

Olivier Hanlan, Boston College, Junior/Guard

24 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists in 79-63 win vs. North Carolina State on Feb. 28

Xavier Rathan-Mayes, Florida State, Freshman/Guard

35 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists in 81-77 loss vs. Miami on Feb. 25

Jamal Reynolds, Canisius, Junior/Guard

15 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists in 72-65 win vs. Fairfield on Feb. 27

NCAA TOP 25

USA TODAY SPORTS, March 2, 2015

1. Kentucky (29-0)

2. Virginia (27-1)

3. Duke (26-3)

4. Villanova (27-2)

5. Wisconsin (26-3)

6. Arizona (26-3)

7. Gonzaga (29-2)

8. Wichita State (27-3)

9. Maryland (24-5)

10. Kansas (23-6)

11. Notre Dame (24-5)

12. Northern Iowa (27-3)

13. Utah (22-6)

14. Louisville (23-6)

15. Oklahoma (20-8)

16. Baylor (22-7)

17. Iowa State (20-8)

18. Arkansas (23-6)

19. North Carolina (20-9)

20. West Virginia (22-7)

21. Butler (21-8)

22. Southern Methodist (23-6)

23. Providence (20-9)

24. Murray State (26-4)

25. Ohio State (21-8)