The snow sits on Remsen Street in Brooklyn, a few hundred feet from Brent Jones, in the bleachers at the Generoso Pope Athletic Complex. In the warmth of the gym, St. Francis Brooklyn’s senior point guard recalls how different winter days used to be.

Growing up just a few miles from the college, Jones routinely made the short walk from his Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment to a court off Tompkins Avenue, always ready to play and sometimes ready to shovel, clearing snow just so he could take some free throws. He smiles thinking back to the simplicity of his love for the game, forever tied to his love of Brooklyn.

The next few months could be his last few months in the borough for some time, with Jones preparing to pursue a professional career, but before he goes, he wants to take at least one thing with him — and leave at least one thing behind.

“As a senior, I want to make history and I want to leave with a ring,” Jones said, looking around his home arena. “I want to have a banner up here. There’s not a lot of banners.”

St. Francis Brooklyn basketball — the oldest collegiate program in New York City, started in 1896 — has spent much of its existence most famous for being part of a trivia answer, as one of five programs in existence since the NCAA Tournament began (1948) to never have played in the tournament.

Pegged for a long-awaited breakthrough as the Northeast Conference favorite entering this season, the Terriers lost their first five games. The stage was set for a great recovery or a great reminder that talent isn’t everything.

“It’s fragile,” fifth-year coach Glenn Braica said of the team following the early struggles. “It could go one way or another, but the kids hung in there.”

The kids leading the way — Jones and fellow senior Jalen Cannon — had no other scholarship offers coming out of high school, but each is ending college in contention to be the Northeast Conference Player of the Year.

Entering Saturday’s “Battle of Brooklyn” against LIU Brooklyn, the Terriers have won 10 of their past 12 games and are tied for first place in the conference, with both players averaging a team-high 14.9 points per game. Jones is also the conference leader in steals (2.2) and the school’s all-time leader in assists, while Cannon is on pace to finish with the most rebounds in conference history.

Not long ago, suiting up wasn’t even a certainty for either player.

The first time Braica saw Jones in person, the coach thought he was meeting the recruit’s younger brother, a 5-foot-10 point guard too skinny to handle the physicality of the next level. Ineligible to play his freshman year, Jones spent the entire season in the weight room, putting on 20 pounds of muscle.

Cannon also was small, an undersized power forward who went unnoticed through the first half of high school, scoring only two points in his entire sophomore season. Eventually hitting 6-foot-6, Cannon’s instincts inside soon were showcased, developing as his body did.

Neither knew of St. Francis’ existence until late in high school, but neither has forgotten what it meant for one school to offer what no other school would.

“I went on the Internet because I’d never heard of St. Francis before, I’d heard of St. Francis [of Pennsylvania] but I didn’t know there were two,” Cannon said. “It’s kind of like we’re paying the coaches back. They invested in us and we’re going to play as hard as we can just because they gave us an opportunity and a scholarship to get a free education.”

Braica has lived in Brooklyn his whole life, spending 15 years as an assistant at St. Francis, with two seasons falling one game short of ending the drought. He often hears from people around the school about how great it would be to make that first dance, and he knows, one year, it will happen. Maybe even this year.

But either way, the Terriers stay the same.

“We’re an underdog place, where I think people can identify with because it’s a struggle,” Braica said. “We’re a city school. We don’t have a big campus. We’re a down-and-dirty group. We take pride in that. You don’t come here if you want all the glitter. We’re not about that. What those guys accomplish on the court is what it’s about.”

Forever underdogs, but favorites for now.

Games of the Week

Xavier at Seton Hall (Saturday, Noon)

The Pirates broke a three-game losing streak with a win at Marquette, but Kevin Willard’s team may get even better news with the potential return of freshman Isaiah Whitehead on Saturday. The uber-talented Brooklyn native returned to practice this week after missing the past nine games with a stress fracture in his foot and would be a big boost against the Musketeers, coming off a double-digit win at Georgetown.

LIU Brooklyn at St. Francis Brooklyn (Saturday, 4 p.m.)

The Blackbirds hold the edge in the annual “Battle of Brooklyn” series, with wins in the past four encounters, but the balance of power has shifted, with the Terriers entering as the heavy favorite. Having watched its neighbors reach three NCAA Tournaments in the past four years, St. Francis is tied for first place in the Northeast Conference and could make its first NCAA Tournament this season.

St. John’s at Butler (Tuesday, 7 p.m.)

Just about every game is a must-win game at this point for the Red Storm, who have moved well outside the tournament bubble with six losses in their past eight games. After playing Providence on Saturday, St. John’s will get the opportunity for a much-needed marquee win at No. 25 Butler. The Bulldogs won in Queens, 73-69, earlier this month, with guard Kellen Dunham hitting 6-of-7 3-pointers to score 28 points.

Local Power Poll

1. Seton Hall

Record: 14-6, 4-4

Up next: Sunday (3 p.m.) at Butler

2. St. John’s

Record: 13-7, 2-5

Up next: Saturday (Noon) vs. Providence

3. Iona

Record: 15-6, 8-2

Up next: Sunday (7 p.m.) vs. St. Peter’s

4. Stony Brook

Record: 15-8, 6-2

Up next: Saturday (Noon) at New Hampshire

5. Hofstra

Record: 14-8, 5-4

Up next: Saturday (8 p.m.) vs. Towson

6. St. Francis Brooklyn

Record: 13-9, 7-2

Up next: Saturday (4 p.m.) vs. LIU Brooklyn

7. Columbia

Record: 9-7, 1-1

Up next: Saturday (7 p.m.) vs. Brown

8. Rutgers

Record: 10-12, 2-7

Up next: Saturday (3:15 p.m.) at Indiana

9. Manhattan

Record: 10-10, 7-4

Up next: Sunday (2 p.m.) at Monmouth

10. Army

Record: 14-6, 5-4

Up next: Saturday (3 p.m.) vs. Loyola (Md.)