DALLAS — So the Rangers will put the 2025-26 season to rest in the warmer temperatures down south. For nearly four months, it’s been understood it was going to end this way. Some late-season winning has eased the team into this final road trip, but skipping to the finish line never translated to an explosive start on the next campaign. 

Management did right by plucking their most promising prospects from Hartford and giving them all a hearty opportunity. It’s not only given the locker room something to rally around these last few meaningless weeks, but it’s opened eyes to organizationally grown players who have been clamoring for their chance. 

Whether it should’ve happened sooner is moot. 

The retool will continue in the offseason, and what president and general manager Chris Drury has learned about his prospect pool will factor into the decisions he makes. 

WASHINGTON — This wasn’t supposed to be part of the equation anymore. Cynicism has crept into all of the corners of college basketball. They’re pros now. It’s all a transactional game. Players don’t stick around long enough to learn the words to the alma mater, let alone battle a lump in the throat when it’s played at the end of a game, or a season. 

There aren’t supposed to be tears anymore. 

There were tears Friday night. Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell sat behind a couple of microphones deep in the bowels of Capital One Arena, maybe half an hour after a valiant attempt to topple a basketball citadel known as the Duke Blue Devils. St. John’s led by one at halftime. They led by 10 five minutes into the second half, and were still within three with under 10 seconds to go. 

It ended 80-75, Duke. It ended one of the great runs in St. John’s history, a 21-1 stretch that against almost any other team in the tournament might have stretched to 22-1. It didn’t. To the red-clad fans who’d tried to make Capital One sound like the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there were a lot of sore throats and a lot of long faces. These are the people who are supposed to wear the emotions now. 

SAN DIEGO — This is how you play the game when you want to carry New York on your shoulders as far and as long as you can. 

The St. John’s Red Storm delivered an emphatic March message to one and all with their 78-53 demolition of Northern Iowa. 

They resembled a Dream Team totally entitled to harbor the most grandiose of dreams. 

“We played like a champion tonight,” assistant coach Steve Masiello told The Post. 

TAMPA, Fla. — Now comes the hard part for Hofstra.

No, not recovering from the heartbreak of this special season coming to a premature end. Friday’s 90-70 first-round loss to Alabama served as an unceremonious end after the Pride reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 25 years.

No, the hard part for Hofstra coach Speedy Claxton is keeping his brilliant backcourt intact.

Keeping shooting guard and leading scorer Cruz Davis for his final year of eligibility.

NORTH PORT, Fla. — Tim Naehring has lived through the highs of Gerrit Cole and the lows of Kei Igawa. CC Sabathia fronting a championship and the hype, hope and quick fizzle that was Deivi Garcia. 

In 19 seasons with the Yankees, 11 as vice president of baseball operations, Naehring has helped form many permutations of the rotation. And so it resonates when he says this is the best he has felt about a group as a season approaches because of “The top-end talent, depth and prospects coming. … This could be a very dynamic pitching staff that has impact and depth.” 

Of course, Naehring adds the proviso about both the need for general health of those pitching right now and that the positive rehab progressions of Cole, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt continue. Because depth can evaporate quickly when it comes to pitching. 

The Braves have lost three starters since the outset of spring training — Joey Wentz (knee) for the season and Spencer Schwellenbach (elbow) and Hurston Waldrep (elbow) for at least half a season. This from a rotation that already had lots of injury-history concerns with ace Chris Sale, Grant Holmes, Reynaldo López and Spencer Strider.