A four year starter in Division III basketball at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, Russell was All Great Lakes Conference and a first team Academic All-American Honoree. Senator Bill Bradley says of this book: "Chris gives a good portrait of what it's like to play college basketball away from the glare of big-time, high pressure sports. He reminds us that the game is for those who live it and play it because they must."

It (The Final Buzzer) ought to be required reading for anyone in high school athletics. It's a book about the relationship of sports and academics and competition in its purest form, and its focus is on what it should properly be on: the game and those who play it," Jim Hamilton, former Upper Arlington (Ohio) Athletic Director and Coach.