Gonzaga’s Steele Venters suffers season-ending Achilles injury

Gonzaga forward Steele Venters will miss his second straight season after torn his left Achilles tendon this week, the men’s basketball team announced Tuesday.

Gonzaga winger Steele Venters averaged 13.5 points and 3.0 rebounds per game at Eastern Washington

In 84 NCAA games (67 as a starter) with Eastern Washington, Venters averaged 13.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 27.9 minutes per game while connecting on 45.4% of his shots, 40.3% of his three-pointers and 84.6% of his free throws.

In 33 games (all as a starter) with the Eagles in the 2021-22 season, he averaged career highs of 16.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 33.7 minutes per game. He led the Big Sky Conference in 3-point percentage, with a career-best 43.4%.

#Gonzaga announces that Steele Venters has suffered an Achilles tendon injury and will miss the 2024-25 season. Heartbreaking news for the winger who missed the entirety of last season with a torn ACL. photo.twitter.com/liCW4MObEi

— Theo Lawson (@TheoLawson_SR) August 27, 2024

Additionally, in Eastern Washington’s 78-70 win over North Dakota State on Dec. 3, 2022, he recorded a personal-best 33 points on 14-of-19 (73.7%) shooting from the floor and 3-of-7 (42.9%) from long range.

The 23-year-old Venters averaged 15.3 points per game and made 37% of his 3-point attempts at Eastern Washington during the 2022-23 season, when he last played in a regular-season game.

The Washington native was named Big Sky Conference MVP and was selected to the first team All-Big Sky. After the 2022-23 season, the 6-foot-7 wing transferred to Gonzaga.

Venters tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a training session after playing just one practice match for the Bulldogs last season

He played just one exhibition game for the Bulldogs in the 2023-24 season before suffering a torn ACL in his right knee during a practice. He was a projected starter, according to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf.

Freshman Dusty Stromer briefly entered the starting lineup. That was until Gonzaga reshuffled its starting unit in January, replacing Stromer with Ben Gregg. 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 mostly at peace with it,” Venters said The Spokesman Review last January. “Now I just try to cheer the boys on. … It’s hard to sit out there and watch these boys play basketball, especially when I know I can help them out there.”

Coming into this season, he was expected to be a major contributor again. According to multiple bookmakers, Gonzaga has the sixth-best odds to win the national title this coming season. The Bulldogs could have used his perimeter shooting after he recovered from his torn ACL.

“We are devastated for Steele,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said in a statement. “He worked so hard to bounce back from his knee injury. We will continue to support Steele as he heals and know he will come back better and stronger.”

Venters also attended Ellensburg High School. As a senior, he led Ellensburg to a 16-6 record and a Central Washington Athletic Conference title, averaging 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists per game. He was a first-team Associated Press 2A All-State selection and scored more than 1,200 points in his high school career.