The University of Northern Iowa plays Southwest Missouri State tonight in St. Louis for the Missouri Valley tournament championship. UNI center David Gruber, a senior, says there’ll be a lot of emotion tonight on both sides. Gruber says it’ll come down to which team works hardest — who comes up with loose balls, rebounds and makes the hustle plays. UNI’s record is 20 and 9 heading into the game and Gruber says they’re gunning for a win tonight to get that automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Gruber says the NCAA tourney is their ultimate goal, or hopefully a bid to the NIT if things don’t work out tonight. He says they’re “going to go out there and fight” for the tournament championship in order to win an automatic place in the NCAA tournament. UNI tied for second in the regular season conference race.(
