“We’re extremely happy with the players’ transition,” he said. “If we had said, ‘This is what we want from you come August,’ they exceeded it. We’re ecstatic.”Then there’s Huggins, who is as giddy as a rookie coach, Martin said.“He’s like a caged animal right now. I’ve known Hugs 15 years, and I don’t think I’ve seen him as excited as he is right now,” said Martin, on Huggins’ last staff at Cincinnati in 2004-05. “You sense he has a passion that cannot wait.”
