Tell the coach or not?

[Mark Padgett]

I was waiting for the game to finish before my first one today and the following happened. Team A up by three with four seconds to go. They will inbound on their own end line. There is a timeout. During the timeout, Coach B goes over to one of the officials and apparently asks something. I can see the official nod. The timeout ends and B1 reaches across the boundary and fouls A1 on the inbound play while A1 is still holding the ball. The official (the same one) calls the intentional foul. Coach B throws his hands up and looks perplexed. They administer the foul (player makes both) and give the ball back to team A for the throw in. They throw it way down court where it is batted around until the horn sounds.

It just so happened that the official involved was my partner for the next game so I asked him what the coach wanted to know. He said the coach asked him that if they fouled the inbounder before he released the ball, would the foul occur without the clock starting. The official said he responded by telling the coach that's what would happen. He then told me he considered also telling the coach that it would be an intentional foul and that team A would get 2 shots and the ball back, so there wouldn't be any advantage he would gain by doing that, but that he felt it wasn't his responsibility to inform the coach of that since he didn't ask.

This game involved competitive middle school teams in a tourney.

What do you guys think? Would you have told the coach about the foul being intentional or just limit your response to what he asked?