TRef, there's a lot of really good information and advice in this thread. And I honestly don't have a whole lot to add to it. I think Jurassic, and especially JRutledge, have really made some excellent points.
The only thing that I would add is that these "player management" skills that we're discussing don't just come naturally to everybody. I've been officiating for about 15 years, and do some college ball, and it's still sometimes a struggle for me at the college level. The good news is that AAU is the perfect place to work on it. (At that level, my experience has been that the best policy is generally, "whack early and whack often".
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