This was inevitable with DeJuan Blair. It started getting beyond speculation and mock drafts after this past Monday’s intimindation and domination over Thabeet. With more NBA scouts in attendance at the DePaul-Pitt game, a couple stories on whether Blair might be gone after this year.

Blair said Pitt’s success in March will play a big role in his decision. He hinted if Pitt wins its first NCAA title, he would almost certainly turn pro.

“Of course,” he said. “You’ve done everything you wanted to do. Of course that would (have an impact).”

Blair, along with Marquette senior guard Jerel McNeal, last year’s winner; junior forward Luke Harangody of Notre Dame; and Thabeet, is considered a leading candidate for the Big East Player of the Year. Blair also could be playing his way onto an All-America team.

“I think he’s one of the top 15 players in the country,” said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who called the UConn game and worked with Blair at the Amare Stoudemire’s Big Man camp this summer in Phoenix. “He’s relentless. He’s an energetic player that never stops and that counts for a lot.”

Dom Berardinelli, a regional scout for the Court Report, an NBA scouting service, has mixed emotions. A former Pitt player and regular at all home games, Berardinelli wants to see Blair play for his alma mater for one more season. The scout in him, however, isn’t so optimistic.

Anyone have any problem with that trade? A big run in the NCAA Tournament meaning Blair would go pro? I don’t. I could live with a major rebuilding year with that trade.

Blair isn’t committing to anything one way or another. Coach Dixon has tought him the cliches well.

“That’s something for everyone else to talk about, not us,” Dixon said, making it clear a Blair-to-the-NBA discussion isn’t high on his priority list with Pitt so close to a Big East regular-season championship and No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

“It’s only speculation that’s based on inaccurate and incomplete information at this point. The decisions are made in April, May and June about who’s going to go and where they’re going to be picked. Right now, there probably are 200 guys going to the NBA. There are more guys going in the first round than there are spots. It’s not worth even talking about at this point.”

Dixon is a coach, right?

The last thing any coach wants now is a distraction.

But Dixon is lucky. Blair is more mature and sensible than many college sophomores. He has handled the NBA questions with the same ease he grabs a rebound. Asked about the draft in Connecticut last week, he said, “The NBA is somewhere over there. We’re here.” Asked about it two weeks ago, he said, “Not even thinking about that. I’ll worry about the future when it gets here, whenever that is. All I’m thinking about now is winning the Big East regular-season championship and the national championship.”

I’m with Blair and Dixon. This is something for other people to discuss if they want now. To me, it is not something I even care about at this point. It’s speculation, though, I expect he will turn pro. Especially if Pitt has a deep run. There is nothing like the shine of a big stage and winning to enhance prospects.

What helps Blair is that he already has the mentality of proving people wrong and always improving.

He was always too big or too small or too clumsy or too young.

DeJuan Blair never listened to any of it. That’s one of the reasons he works so hard to prove his doubters wrong.

“Whatever he uses as a personal motivating factor,” former Pitt star Charles Smith said, “it’s working.”

I’m just glad he’s here right now.