Daily Dosage: Happy Election Day!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the biggest day of the rest of your life ... until the next election rolls around.

Thanks to mass confusion, I'm not voting because I can't. Long story, but it's no big deal.

I'm from Chicago, home of "vote early, vote often."

Home of where the dead vote. Home of Barack Obama. I'm pretty sure Illinois is a lock to be a "blue state."

Alicia Keys, do your thing!

Now that I've got the public service announcement out of the way, it's time to resume the Daily Dosage.

Salukis survive sloppy opener. The SIU men's basketball team's 82-59 exhibition win against Missouri Southern was everything I expected it to be.

I expected it to be fun with the ball-handling skills of the backcourt duo of Bryan Mullins and Kevin Dillard. I expected an increase in aggressiveness on the boards with the influx of big men including Tony Boyle, Nick Evans, Anthony Booker, etc.

And I expected the normal highs (82 points) and lows (34 turnovers) that come with opening night.

Sophomore forward Carlton Fay led the Salukis with 17 points in 11 minutes, asserting himself early with a pair of early conventional three-point plays. Fay looked more comfortable as he doesn't have to defer to Matt Shaw or Randal Falker anymore.

SIU returns to the hardwood Thursday night as it hosts Southwest Baptist.

Aggressive Salukis open season with win [Daily Egyptian]

No tricks for Bulls as they fall to Magic. The Chicago Bulls should be a playoff team this year. They have plenty of talent and an offense that mirrors what the Phoenix Suns have been doing of late. However, they won't be an elite team until they have a player like Dwight Howard in the post.

Howard scored 22 points and yanked 15 rebounds to lead Orlandto to a 96-93 victory.

Drew Gooden did his best Howard impersonation, scoring 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting, but it wasn't enough as Chicago dropped its record to 2-2.

Rookie Derrick Rose scored 14 points, but only had one assisst as he commited three turnovers.

Orlando 96 Chicago 93

Quality Linkage:

• Derek Jeter is only good at fielding hot babes. [NY Post]
• Sports and politics. [USA Today]
• NBA expert Lil' Wayne says Greg Oden is a bust. [ESPN The Mag]
• Cheerleaders! [Deadspin]
• Chris Fowler, Michael Crabtree and pricelessness. [The Big Lead]