Not at all. In a lot of cases you are not going to know exactly why your partner made a call because you are working your area. Things I use are "My partner was right there and had a great look at the play" or "My partner will be around here soon, you can ask him about it". I try not to speculate on plays I didn't see myself.

Joe, saying "I didn't see the play, you'll have to ask my partner" is both an acknowlegement of the the coach and an answer to his question.

Communicating with a coach does not equate to explaining your partners' calls.

Coach: How can that be a walk?
Me: Didn't you just ask Debbie that?
Coach: But...

I walk away.

OR

Coach: How can that be a walk?
Me: Check the tape after the game.

OR

Coach: How can that be a walk?
Me: I trust Debbie to make a great call on that.

AND

Coach: That's bulls***
Me: ~Whack!~ (There's no "OR" to this one, it's automatic).

I like that- will add this one to my toolbox.

Thanks to all for the feedback- well with one exception. :)

Exactly the correct answer.

There's nothing wrong with this. This is also where you will need to grow some thick skin and maybe that's why the association is forcing you to do it.

Something to consider because this will happen in the game. If a coach asks me a question and the ball is live and I'm standing either next to him or within ear shot of him. If I give him an answer, it has to be 1 or 2 seconds, really quick. So, if I fail to come up with something during that quick timespan, ball headed in the other direction, I'm gone with the play and I might not come back on that side of the court when we come back down. End result, I didn't answer his question on that trip and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. More often than not, they will forget about that question and move on to the next incident. If the coach wants to call a timeout and wants talk to me. He's more than welcome to do that and I will then go and speak directly with him.

PS: OS, you actually posted something sensible above my post.

This is actually a decent post.

The only problem I have with this is it doesn't include the people factor. If I don't know the coach, or have had a bad experience with the coach in the past. Yes, I will whack immediately for this. However, this does not consider IMO, when you do know the coach. For instance, I played bb with some of these coaches. We curse each other out on the floor all the time. I referee some of these coaches in the rec men's league. What about the ones you respect and have a personal relationship with. And I always like to use the Bobby Knight example.

That's why I like to say it's a judgment call here. You don't have to agree with me here, but you should acknowledge that these relationship do exist among referee and coaches. And there are things that are said in the heat of battle that don't get met with the same immediate T response like what was suggested here. Some officials may give a coach a little more latitude because they know the coach, and in return, the coaches is going to want someone with a thicker skin like that on their bigger games. Turn the TV way up on a WNBA playoff games. Sometimes, they mick up the coach or someone that's close by the bench. You will hear some swearing going on and it is directed right at the official in the C slot. Those coaches will get all over the officials. WNBA officials are very inconsistent, imo. In fact, Bill Lambier won the battle with the officials in the WNBA this past season. Got them to call it more consistently which benefited his team.

If I know them, they know me. They also know that for me Bulls*** is an automatic T. Even if the coach were my own husband or my daughter, I'd whack for this. If we have a relationship, they know this. They make their choice, they take their prize.

BF last night. V35 gives me the easiest hand-check call I've ever made right in front of the home bench, it's his 4th, so coach pulls him immediately. As I'm administering the inbound, H coach asks, seemingly out of the blue, "Can he say 'Bull Sh!t' like that?" Only loud enough for me and his players to hear.

I simply respond by telling him I didn't hear it (I can only assume it was the offending player on his way to the bench, but I seriously didn't hear it). There's a dead ball right away, and I turn to the coach and look him in the eye and say, "Coach, if he said it, I honestly didn't hear it." "I know, it's just that I heard it and I was standing right next to you." "I know, coach."

So, I guess I can't say the words are an automatic T for me now. :)