Out here in Oregon, we have a fairly well-known and respected girls coach who has been using the code word "bananas" for years when he wants his girls to foul. Everyone knows what it means, and even younger grades use it because they think they're supposed to!
Does this mean that every time he yells "bananas" and one of his players fouls, we call it intentional. Of course not. In fact, as stated above, I let the action dictate the foul. If the player was making a legitimate effort to get the ball and the contact was not excessive, it's not an intentional foul in my book regardless of what the coach yells and/or the game situation. Why should we discourage defenders from going for the ball? What happens if the coach is yelling "foul, foul, foul", the defender runs up to the ball handler and cleanly swats the ball away? Are you going to call an "intentional almost-foul"?
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Yom HaShoah
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