Three players were still hospitalized. Forward Sam Ashaolu, 23, of Toronto, a cousin of former Houston Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon, remained in danger after a bullet shattered and separated into three sections of his head.

Stuard Baldonado, 21, of Colombia, was in serious but improving condition with left arm and back injuries. He was told by surgeons that a bullet missed his spinal column,which would almost certainly cause paralysis,by one-quarter of an inch (1 centimeter) before lodging in a lower back muscle. Kojo Mensah, 21, of New York City, who was shot in the arm and shoulder, was kept in the hospital for another night to receive injections of antibiotics.

Aaron Jackson, 20, of Hartford, Connecticut, and Shawn James, 23, of New York City were treated and released.

In interviews on Monday with The Associated Press, Jackson and Stephen Wood recounted laying helpless in front of a campus dormitory early Sunday as bullet after bullet flew by them,and the same thought crossed each of their minds.

"It seemed like the bullets never stopped coming," Jackson said, absent-mindedly rubbing the left wrist that was grazed by one of the bullets.

"They kept coming, constantly," Wood said.

Several players said the shootings apparently resulted from an act of jealousy by a non-student unhappy that the girlfriend he accompanied to a dance, sponsored by the Black Student Union, talked with a player or players.

"We didn't have any conflict at all," said Wood. "We were just having a good time. There was jealousy because girls were showing us attention."

The players were followed by the disgruntled non-student and at least one of his acquaintances when they left the dance, they said, and the shootings happened as the players walked together toward the dormitory. Mensah, Ashaolu and Baldonado were the first to be hit; James was wounded on the foot but escaped by running across the nearby gridiron.