Ed Puskas: Why no love for Blatt’s coaching?

David Blatt is like the Ohio State football coach. He can’t get credit for anything.

If the Cavaliers get past the suddenly anemic Atlanta Hawks and into the NBA Finals, LeBron James is going to get the credit.

And rightly so.

Similarly, if James and the Cavaliers then beat either Golden State or Houston and bring the first major world championship to Cleveland since 1964, Akron’s native son will be considered the man who did what no other could.

And rightly so.

Credit to James, first for deciding to come back to northeastern Ohio in his quest to bring that elusive title to Cleveland. No, it hasn’t happened just yet, but the prospects sure look better today than they did a year ago.

Credit to James for helping to turn around the Cavaliers after a sub-.500 start 39 games into the season.

Credit to James for putting an injury-riddled team on his back after Kevin Love was lost for the rest of the playoffs and Kyrie Irving was limited to part-time duty, essentially on one leg.

Credit to James for making the game-winning shot at the buzzer in Game 4 against the Bulls in Chicago, which seems to have been the precise moment when Cleveland’s luck started to change.

And if that doesn’t hold up, either in the Eastern Conference finals or in the NBA Finals, it’s not likely to be because of anything LeBron did or didn’t do.

If the season doesn’t end in a championship — fair or not — first-year coach David Blatt will likely be blamed.

Blatt has had an up-and-down first season thanks to the Cavaliers’ shaky start, whispers of behind-the-scenes tension and then his attempt to call a timeout he didn’t have in Game 4 against Chicago.

And there was Blatt’s idea to use James to inbound the ball on the last possession in that same game.

Credit to LeBron for taking control of that situation.

But do the Cavs have to win the NBA title for Blatt to get any credit? He’s in good company already with 10 wins in his first 12 postseason games. The only other guys who’ve done that are Pat Riley, Johnny Kundla, Mike Dunleavy and Steve Kerr (with the Warriors this season).

Even Phil Jackson, who started with Michael Jordan and the Bulls, didn’t. And even though Jackson had Jordan, he still got credit for coaching chops.

Why not Blatt? His team is 44-11 since Jan. 15, when they were 19-20.

Blatt decidedly outcoached Tom Thibodeau as the Cavs eliminated the Bulls. He is well on his way to doing the same to the Hawks’ Mike Budenholzer.

And he’s done it without Love and largely without Irving. But he still has LeBron, so he gets no credit.

Sound familiar?

For all OSU’s success, it hasn’t had a Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year since Earle Bruce in 1979. John Cooper, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer didn’t get it.

Why not? They had talent and were expected to win.

In 2002, when Tressel’s Buckeyes went 14-0 and won a national title, the award went to Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz. In 2014, when Meyer led OSU to a national title with his third-string QB, Minnesota’s Jerry Kill was voted the Big Ten’s top coach.

Blatt soon may be able to relate.

Write Vindicator Sports Editor Ed Puskas at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @EdPuskas_Vindy.