In her own words, Alexander is unique

IOWA CITY -- Talk about following your shot.

Kachine Alexander misfired badly on a 3-point attempt from the right wing. A split-second before the ball left her hand, she was at full speed to the left side of the floor, a spot maybe 20 feet away.

She got inside position on a Northern Iowa player and outhustled her for the offensive rebound. Ultimately, it led to a basket for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Typical hustle. Typical motion. Typical Alexander.

For someone who's not wild about geometry, Alexander knows angles. She'd be a whiz at billiards.

"If I know where it's going to go, I'm going to get there before anyone else," said Alexander, who routinely tests the rim of each gym in which she plays to check the tension and, thus, where the ball might carom.

At her current rebounding rate (a team-high 8.8 per game), Alexander could finish as the second-leading career rebounder in school history, behind only Cindy Haugejorge.

Despite missing half of her freshman season due to academic ineligibility.

Despite playing with sore legs throughout much of her career.

And despite her stature. She's listed at 5-foot-9, and that's generous.

"Inch for inch, she's the best rebounding player in the country," said Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder. "She loves rebounding. She wants to know who our leading rebounder is after every game, and she's disappointed when it's not her."

"She will pursue the ball because she wants it a little more than everybody else."

It wasn't Alexander's talent that Bluder noticed when she first saw her at an AAU tournament.

It was her bull-headed refusal to be outhustled.

"There she was, diving after a loose basketball into the bleachers," Bluder recalled. "Not because she was playing for a scholarship, but because that's how she plays. That give-it-all attitude, you can't coach that."

To appreciate Alexander's impact for the 14th-ranked Hawkeyes, who are 12-1 as Big Ten play opens Thursday at Penn State, listen to what those outside the program say:

"She's a matchup nightmare," said Kansas Coach Bonnie Henrickson last year.

And from Kristin Turk of Drake, whose motor runs at a similarly high pace: "She's definitely always there. You have to have her in the back of your mind. She's an extraordinary player, rebounder … she can do it all."

Alexander averages 14.3 points per game, second on the team behind Jaime Printy. She's the team leader in rebounds and steals (21).

And she's the emotional compass.

"She has so much ability to influence the feeling of the team, the attitude of the team," Bluder said. "When she's up, we're up. When she's down, it's hard to get everybody in the right direction."

She's not down often. Asked last week to describe herself in three words, she didn't blink.

"Three words?" she replied. "Loud. Unique. Emotional."

Unique?

"There isn't another one out there like me," she said.

Get Alexander going on a subject, and get out of the way. She's well-spoken, and not at all soft-spoken. She has the gift, as they say, for gab.

"She's a very social person," Bluder said.

Alexander on leadership:

"Leaders aren't determined when the lights are bright. They're the ones that do the little stuff when nobody is watching."

On her decision to come to Iowa from her hometown of Minneapolis:

"I didn't have that many offers. I was only known for my defense. I really only wanted to come to Iowa. In Minnesota, as (a college athlete), you get lost."

On her academic woes as a freshman:

"I had C's (first semester) except my rhetoric class. I had a miscommunication with my rhetoric professor, and by the time it got figured out, it was too late.

"Everything happens for a reason. I switched my whole attitude."

On the titanium rod that supports her leg -- it was inserted this summer after she suffered a stress fracture last season:

"I have a card that I have to show (security) when I go through airports. What, do they think I have a bomb in my leg? Seriously?"

Alexander talks, emphatically and quickly. But ask her about this team, and her teammates, and the pace slows and the voice softens.

"It's a special group of ladies," she said. "We come from different places and different ethnic backgrounds. Most teams, they get along. This team, we like each other. Getting along and liking each other, those are two different things.

"Leaving this team, it's going to be hard. I don't even want to think about it."

Last season ended with a 29-point loss at Stanford in the second round of the NCAA tournament. In that game, Alexander scored a career-high 27 points. Afterward, she received a standing ovation from the Stanford crowd.

When this season ends, a pro career probably beckons. In a mock WNBA draft by www.draftsite.com, Alexander would be selected early in the second round.

It will be a brief pro stay, Alexander said. She wants to coach.

"She'll be a great college coach," Bluder said. "She is remarkable at recalling basketball information."

Before the season, Alexander proclaimed that "the sky is the limit" with this team. So far, the Hawkeyes have delivered. But there's another level they must reach to win the Big Ten and march deep into March.

"These close games we've played lately (against South Dakota State, Drake and UNI), last year we would have lost those," she said. "We would have crumbled.

"We're (12-1), and we haven't even hit our bread and butter yet. We've been horrendous with our 3-point shooting. But we're still beating people."