Gonzaga wing Steele Venters has suffered a season-ending injury for the second consecutive year.
Venters will miss the 2024-25 season with a left Achilles tendon injury, Gonzaga confirmed Tuesday in a release.
“We are heartbroken for Steele,” GU head coach Mark Few said. “He was working so hard to come back from his knee injury. We will continue to support Steele through his healing process and know he will come back better and stronger.”
Venters went down in practice last November during a rebounding drill with a torn ACL in his right knee a few days before the 2023-24 season opener against Yale.
The 6-foot-7, 200-pound Venters, who is listed as a redshirt junior, was reportedly on track to return for the upcoming season before his latest injury. He was seen in GU basketball photo and video posts on X at the team’s summer workouts. It wasn’t known how much he was able to participate in drills or when the Achilles injury occurred.
Venters transferred to Gonzaga after being named Big Sky Conference MVP following Eastern Washington’s 2022-23 season. He also tested the NBA draft waters that spring and summer before deciding to return to college basketball.
He was expected to start for the Zags last season before tearing his ACL. Freshman Dusty Stromer moved into the starting lineup until Gonzaga shuffled its starting unit with Ben Gregg replacing Stromer in January. Gonzaga went with a frontcourt of Gregg, Anton Watson and Graham Ike in the starting five for the final 19 games of the season.
“Now I’m at peace with it for the most part,” Venters told The Spokesman-Review last January. “Now I’m just trying to cheer on the guys. … It’s tough to sit out and watch these guys hoop, especially knowing I could be out there helping them.”
Venters’ role this season wasn’t determined, but he likely would have been prominent in the rotation. Pepperdine transfer Michael Ajayi, a 6-7 forward, has been projected by many as the front-runner to replace Watson in the starting lineup.
Gonzaga has one of its deepest rosters with multiple options at the wing/small forward position, including Ajayi, the 6-6 Stromer, 6-5 transfers Khalif Battle (Arkansas) and Emmanuel Innocenti (Tarleton State), and 6-8 junior Jun Seok Yeo, who saw limited playing time last season.
Ajayi, Yeo and the 6-10 Gregg have the versatility to play the ‘3’ or ‘4’ and Gregg has logged time at the ‘5.’
Venters, an Ellensburg native, arrived at EWU as a walk-on and redshirted in 2019-20. In the 2020-21 COVID-shortened season, he came off the bench in 17 games, averaging 9.6 minutes and 3.6 points.
His best season statistically was as a redshirt sophomore. Venters was second-team All-Big Sky while averaging 16.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists. He connected on 43.4% on 3-pointers, sixth nationally.
Venters hasn’t played in an official game since EWU’s second-round NIT road loss to Oklahoma State in March 2023. He scored 27 points in a first-round NIT victory at Washington State.
Venters played nearly 17 minutes in Gonzaga’s Navy/White scrimmage last October during Kraziness in the Kennel and roughly 18 minutes in an exhibition rout over Lewis-Clark State College, seven days before last year’s season-opening win over Yale.
He started 67 of EWU’s 68 games during his sophomore and junior seasons. His career averages as an Eagle were 13.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 50.7% on shots inside the arc, 40.3% on 3s and 84.6% at the free-throw line.
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