Season Recap: Steele Venters, Gonzaga’s Greatest What-If

**Then Came November** When Venters entered the transfer portal in April 2023, Gonzaga assistant Stephen Gentry was on the phone within minutes, beating roughly 25 other Division I coaches to the punch. It wasn’t a hard sell. A 6’7 wing coming off a 40% three-point season, brought in specifically to replace Julian Strawther, who had just been drafted by the Denver Nuggets, and who had grown up watching Gonzaga dominate the west coast from just a few hours away. He committed fast.

Welcome to the family @SteeleV24 📰Press Release: pic.twitter.com/skNaX8IUcm

— Gonzaga Basketball (@ZagMBB) April 17, 2023 The timing, however, meant the hype of his decision to come to Gonzaga got a little lost in the shuffle. A week later Gonzaga landed Ryan Nembhard and Graham Ike in the same window, and those two understandably ate up most of the offseason oxygen. But Venters was a real piece of that puzzle, a proven high-volume shooter who could slot straight into the starting lineup alongside two of the best players Few had recruited in years. On paper, the 2023-24 Zags looked dangerous. Then came November. Two days before the season opener against Yale, Venters went down in practice. Torn ACL, right knee. He had played 18 minutes in an exhibition win over Lewis-Clark State. That was it. He allowed himself about a week to be devastated, then put his head down and began the grinding work of injury rehab.

**Then The Other One** By August 2024 he was fully cleared for action. But then, in his first live workout back, working with Coach Gentry on a simple shooting drill, he came off a ball screen, skip-stepped, went to re-attack and felt a pop. He looked back at Gentry, convinced someone had thrown something at his leg. Left Achilles, completely ruptured. He had been days from rejoining his teammates after a year of rehabilitation. Now he was starting over, on the other leg.

Gonzaga wing Steele Venters will miss the entire season with an Achilles injury.

Venters missed all of last season with a torn ACL.

Just brutal injury luck for the Zags and former EWU sharpshooter.

Prayers for a speedy recovery 🙏 pic.twitter.com/3brlDaVz3n

— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) August 27, 2024 The previous season had been Gonzaga’s worst three-point shooting campaign in Mark Few’s 26 years as head coach, a miserable 35.4% from deep. Against Kentucky in overtime they went 4-of-20 on catch-and-shoot threes and lost by one. And through all of it, parked on the bench in street clothes with the same high-and-tight haircut and the same goatee and the same steady gaze he’d had since the day he committed, was Steele Venters. A career 40% shooter. Just sitting there. Watching. The proximity of the solution to the problem, night after night, felt nearly comedic. By the summer of 2025 he was cleared for action, then practicing with the team in live drills, then winning the three-point contest at Kraziness in the Kennel in front of a crowd that had been waiting two years to see him shoot. He was named to the starting lineup to open the season. After 961 days, the wait was finally over. Terrific stuff today with #Gonzaga G Steele Venters on his incredible CBB journey: “Definitely had some times where I thought about hanging it up, but I love this game so much. I’ve always had to work for everything I’ve gotten. It’s just having the mentality of never quitting.” pic.twitter.com/MXWXmLQ2f1

— Andrew Quinn (@andrewquinny) November 20, 2025

**The Season** At the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas he strung together outings of 12, 14 and 14 points against Alabama, Maryland and Oregon, splashing eight combined threes and looking every bit the shooter the program had waited two years to deploy. He made nine consecutive starts between December 5th and January 4th. In the Campbell game he threw down a one-handed dunk off a reconstructed Achilles that sent the bench into a frenzy.

The Steele Venters dunk was a topic postgame.

Venters: “I felt like I was 18 again.”

Braeden Smith: “We were not expecting that, just a one dribble punch.”

Braden Huff: “Steele and I got a little competition going on, see who can get more dunks. I think we’re both at two.” pic.twitter.com/mJvm5xCA1x

— Theo Lawson (@TheoLawson\_SR) December 18, 2025 But then the role started shrinking. Braden Huff’s knee injury in January pushed the team toward a more defensive configuration (never Steele’s strongest suit), while freshman Davis Fogle caught fire, averaging 20-plus minutes and double figures down the stretch. Venters went from starter to reserve to effectively invisible, logging single-digit minutes most nights and sitting out the final games entirely. He made just 6 of his final 23 threes as the minutes dried up. He didn’t play in the WCC Tournament or the NCAA Tournament. If by that point in the season Few had any inkling Venters might transfer, reducing his minutes to near zero would have strengthened the medical waiver case considerably. Whether that was the calculus or not, Venters finished at 5.0 points per game in 15 minutes across 27 games. We're off and running pic.twitter.com/yhGUoUV4PI

— Gonzaga Basketball (@ZagMBB) December 29, 2025

**What Comes Next** And now it’s official: Venters will be taking his talents west, 280 miles down I-90 to join Danny Sprinkle’s UW Huskies for his final year of eligibility. The question is how he’ll fit in.

Steele Venters writes his farewell to #Gonzaga: “These past three years have had their share of ups and downs, but it’s been an incredible blessing every step of the way.” pic.twitter.com/ObBGCkyLvl

— Theo Lawson (@TheoLawson\_SR) April 12, 2026 If UW’s performance last year is any indication, Steele’s services will be highly valued in Seattle. Washington shot 31.5% from three in 2025-26, 288th in the country. Heading into 2026-27 the situation is even more dire: lead guard Quimari Peterson, forward Jacob Ognacevic and point guard Desmond Claude are gone to graduation, Hannes Steinbach is headed to the NBA draft, and Zoom Diallo, who averaged 15.7 points and 4.5 assists as a sophomore, just committed to Kentucky. Sprinkle is rebuilding from scratch, and his first two portal additions are both shooters: Parker Friedrichsen from Davidson at 40.5% from three, and then Venters. NEWS: Davidson transfer Parker Friedrichsen has committed to Washington, he tells 336Edits.

The 6-4 guard averaged 10.8 points and 2.5 rebounds this season. pic.twitter.com/pBLgAYUP55

— 336 Edits (@336Edits) April 13, 2026 The waiver is far from a sure thing. Venters will be entering his seventh year in college basketball having played in exactly three of them. The NCAA’s five-year clock does not care much about context, as Gonzaga fans learned last fall when Tyon Grant-Foster had his eligibility waiver denied three times before a Spokane County judge had to step in and settle it in court. The NCAA has shown repeatedly it will not simply do the right thing because the right thing is obvious. If the waiver comes through, though, Sprinkle is getting a highly experienced veteran who’s shown unbelievable grit and diligence over the course of his career. A 6’7 wing who shot 43.4% from three as a sophomore and 45.7% as a junior before two years of injury buried the whole thing. There’s plenty of reason to believe that player is still in there and could re-emerge given the right opportunity in the right offensive scheme. There is a version of this story where Steele Venters gets his final year, gets big minutes at UW, and finally becomes the player everyone hoped to see three years ago. Gonzaga fans should hope for that happy ending for a dude who’s been through as much as Steele. It just might sting a little watching it happen in purple and gold instead of blue and white.