That’s the word from David Gruber, a feel-good story in major-college basketball if there ever was one.

Gruber is a 6-6, 230-pound small-town Iowan who is enjoying his senior year for Northern Iowa so much that he’s willing to play with a broken bone in his left wrist as the regular season winds down.

And don’t bother asking the friendly young man from Solon, where he’d been a standout Class 2-A high school athlete, if he ever deals in the "what if?" game while thinking about his collegiate career.

After Gruber gutted his way through a 32-minute performance last night against Drake at the Knapp Center, I asked him if he ever thinks about what might have been. After all, his home is in the shadow of the University of Iowa, and there are plenty of people who are still wondering if he could have made it as a Hawkeye.

Gruber had the perfect response to that question.

"We’ve beaten Iowa two times in the last three seasons, so I’m happy where I am," he said.

UNI beat the Hawkeyes, 78-76, two years ago at Cedar Falls, and did the same thing, 77-66, early this season when Iowa was ranked No. 24 nationally.

"I talked to Drake a little bit, Creighton and Indiana State," he said, "but I thought I never was going to leave Kirkwood after one year. But Coach Mac (the players’ nickname for UNI coach Greg McDermott) – whom I knew a little bit when I came out of high school – said, ‘Why don’t you check us out.’ So I did, and it was a good fit."

Gruber said Steve Alford was Iowa’s coach when he was thinking of where he wanted to play major-college basketball and "I talked to Iowa a little bit. They were maybe interested in me after my sophomore year at Kirkwood, but there was not a lot of interest.

"I don’t have any regrets. I’m playing Division I basketball and we’re having some success. We’re 16-9 for the season and 10-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference. I’ve been fortunate. And until now, I’ve been injury-free.

"I’m close to home, my family can come and see me play and I’m at a great school."

McDermott said Gruber’s performance in UNI’s 84-79 victory in overtime over Drake was all heart.

"He played 32 minutes, but I think all of us who’ve seen him play know he wasn’t himself," McDermott said. "For him to get 10 rebounds being as sore as that hand was is pretty amazing.

"He wanted to play, but there’s no reason medically he should be playing. It was his call, and I was going to support him in whatever he wanted to do. I’m proud of him. What that did for us psychologically was huge for us."

It turned out, however, that the only way he wouldn’t have played was if he had two broken legs.

"The doctors said it wasn’t a good idea for me to play," Gruber said. "Nobody plays with this (speaking of the type of injury he has). But it was up to me. I had three regular-season games left, and this is important to me now. I thought if it wasn’t too painful, I’d play. I felt I couldn’t break it any worse than it already is."

The wrist was covered with a plastic covering, with a pad over that and a heavy wrap.

"I could move my fingers OK, but I can’t grip real hard," he said. "I can catch the ball and I can still rebound. I’m not as much of an offensive threat as I’d like to be, but that’s all right. We had some shooters out there."

He was right about that.

UNI tied a school record by making 15 three-point baskets in 25 attempts. Matt Schneiderman led the way with six of eight while scoring 28 points.

Gruber, who came into the game with a 12.1 scoring average and a 6.7 rebounding average, took only five shots and made one field goal. He was 3-for-6 on free throws while scoring five points.

Asked if the real reason Gruber made sure he played was because he was tired of being tied with McDermott, the coach joked, "The players were threatening a conspiracy because we were tied. David made me aware that we were tied. I was afraid that maybe he was going to go in there and score, then take himself out and not play anymore."

Seriously, McDermott said, "I’m proud of him. He’s done so much for our program. He’s everything you could want in a leader. When we sat there three years ago and talked about him coming to this program, we said that this is where we hoped we’d be now. And we’re here in large part to David Gruber."

Gruber said when he made the point that enabled him to pass McDermott on the career scoring list, he looked over to the bench and saw that he was being replaced in the lineup.

"I didn’t know if I was through for the night," he said with a laugh.

Gruber and UNI are now down to two regular-season games remaining. They play at Indiana State on Saturday afternoon, the face powerful Southern Illinois – the Valley’s best team –- Monday night at Cedar Falls.

"Beating Drake did a lot of things for us," McDermott said. "It kept us in the hunt for third place or the possibility for second place if things continue to fall right. Obviously, we have to continue to play well. It keeps us on the radar for postseason play."

The Panthers would need to win the Valley’s postseason tournament, which will be held March 5-8 at St. Louis, to get the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

McDermott would like to think his team has a shot at making it to the National Invitation Tournament if that doesn’t happen.

"Some people talk like the NIT is second-rate," he said. "But for where our program is, it’s not. We’ve never been to the NIT. We’ve been to the postseason only once in our history. For us to get back would be a big step for our program."

Of the victory over Drake (11-14 overall and 6-10 in the Valley), Gruber said, "We found a way to win in overtime on the road against a team that’s been playing well."

Drake lost despite getting a career-high 31 points from Lonnie Randolph. He made five of the Bulldogs’ seven three-point field goals.

However, Drake killed itself by missing its last 13 shots of the game. The Bulldogs made only one field goal in the overtime before a noisy crowd of 6,427.

UNI had to envious of the turnout because it has an average attendance of only 3,708 in 15 home games.

That’s a long-time problem for the school because so many people in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area are caught up in Hawkeye fever. If they don’t drive to the Iowa games—either the basketball games or the football games--they want to watch them on TV.

And that’s too bad because this Panther team is well worth the price of admission – thanks in large part to David Gruber, who hopes his basketball career isn’t over when he plays his final game for UNI.

"I’d like to play as long as I can," he said. "I’d like to give basketball overseas a shot. If that doesn’t work, I can start working. I’ll get my degree in general studies with a business emphasis and a marketing major."