COLUMBIA, Mo. – When asked weeks ago how to defend the pass-receiving machine that teammate Danario Alexander has become, Missouri linebacker Sean Weatherspoon suggested cutting the pass off at the source.

“Get to the quarterback,” Weatherspoon said.

Nothing else – including double- and triple-teaming – seems to work.

At 6 feet 5, Alexander towers over every defensive back, every safety trying to cover him. Ask Tysyn Hartman of Kansas State, who on a deep pass pattern appeared to be step for step with him until Alexander leaped over Hartman’s head, reached down and snatched the ball, reversing what looked to be a possible interception.

And then, of course, kept on motoring into the end zone, completing an 80-yard touchdown play.

Not that Hartman should have felt picked upon.

“Anyone on him is a mismatch,” MU quarterback Blaine Gabbert said.

Alexander, after three knee operations and a broken wrist, has traveled from anonymous to seemingly a unanimous pick as the Big 12’s top receiver in his final season at Mizzou.

At the start of the season that honor was up for discussion among Oklahoma State’s Dez Bryant and Kansas’ Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier.

Bryant’s season was scuttled by NCAA suspension for lying to investigators. Briscoe and Meier have largely lived up to expectations. And Texas’ Jordan Shipley is right there as well.

But with Alexander – to twist and borrow from author Gertrude Stein – there is more there there.

Coming into Saturday’s Border War against Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium, Alexander’s 128.27 yards per game receiving average is third in the nation, only .09 of a yard behind Greg Salas of Hawaii and 6.5 yards behind Bowling Green’s Freddie Barnes.

Alexander – along with Meier – is also third nationally with 8.36 receptions a game.

And in total receiving yards? Alexander leads the Big 12 easily with a school-record 1,411 yards to Shipley’s 1,204, Briscoe’s 1,095 and Meier’s 931.

Alexander has become the focus of not only a conference but a national spotlight that he is more comfortable avoiding.

“You can’t let it burn a hole through you,” he said. “You can’t just go out on the field and it’s going to happen.”

After Alexander burned Iowa State for 11 receptions and 173 yards Saturday – barely missing what would have been a national record-tying third straight 200-yard receiving game – Cyclones coach Paul Rhoads pumped up the hyperbole.

Rhoads compared Alexander to all-time NFL Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown and to Olympic gold-medal sprinter Usain Bolt all in the same sentence.

“Jim Brown ran reckless,” Alexander said. “Couldn’t anybody tackle him. Jim Brown, he was a monster. I can’t be compared to him.”

Then how about Bolt?

“I’ve never heard anything like that,” Alexander said, shaking his head in humility.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel has been shaking his head a lot lately when asked for new superlatives to describe Alexander’s play.

Pinkel has already compared him on several occasions to two-time Missouri All-American Jeremy Maclin. But the two players are more different than alike.

Where Maclin – now playing with the Philadelphia Eagles – started fast and was at top speed within three strides, Alexander gets open by studying how to, with his long strides leading to a late speed that seems to surprise defenders who think they have the angle on tackling him .

“When I see the angle, I just know I’ve got an extra gear,” Alexander said.

“Just opened up the stride a little more,” he explained of breaking away on his 63 -yard TD catch and run against Iowa State.

“I saw all the green grass.”

People tend to forget that heading into the 2007 season, Alexander had beaten Maclin out for a starting job.

A broken wrist suffered in the first game of that season against Illinois opened a door of opportunity that Maclin ran through and slammed shut behind him.

With that – and a succession of knee injuries that required three surgeries – Alexander seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of Wally Pipp, the New York Yankees first baseman who left the lineup one day and was consigned to the shadows by a replacement named Lou Gehrig.

Alexander still wears a knee brace, which some contend limits his side-to-side maneuverability just a bit.

“The plan was, use it for the Illinois game and after that just take it off,” Alexander said. “But I had a good game against Illinois (10 receptions for 132 yards).

“I’ve been able to make plays. That’s why I’ve kept it on.”

With such obvious success – Alexander has twice been selected Big 12 offensive player of the week this season and has been Missouri’s nominee on several other occasions – comes obvious attention from the opposition.

“I’m double-covered, sometimes triple-covered,” Alexander said, having noticed he was being noticed more for the first time in the second half of a game at Oklahoma State where he caught nine passes for 180 yards.

“You’ve got to be ready for the more attention you’re going to get from the defense.”

Alexander, as a way of being ready, picks the brain of Gabbert and the MU coaches, and watches game video over and over .

“Knowing what defenses are going to do, and what the quarterback sees,” Alexander said, “let’s me know where I need to be at on the field.”

The result?

“That’s obvious to anybody,” Pinkel said. “He’s a premier wide receiver.”

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