Gonzaga's Steele Venters injures his Achilles tendon and will miss the 2024/25 season

Gonzaga men's basketball winger Steele Venters has suffered an Achilles tendon injury and will miss the 2024-25 college basketball season, according to a news release from the school.

Venters, who transferred from Eastern Washington to Gonzaga in April 2023, was forced to miss the entire 2023-24 season due to an ACL injury.

“We are heartbroken for Steele,” Bulldogs head coach Mark Few said in a press release. “He has worked so hard to come back from his knee injury. We will continue to support Steele throughout his healing process and know he will come back better and stronger.”

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Ellensburg, Washington, native was named to the official 2024-25 roster as a redshirt junior after receiving a medical redshirt for the 2023-24 season. NCAA athletes are granted a medical redshirt year if they sustain an injury that is considered “season-ending” and occurs before the halfway point of the season. Student-athletes can receive multiple medical redshirts from the NCAA.

Venters also completed a redshirt year as a walk-on freshman at Eastern Washington in 2019. Over the course of three seasons with the Eagles, he was named All-Big Sky twice and was crowned Big Sky MVP during his redshirt junior year in 2022-23. Venters averaged 15.3 points and hit 45.7% of his 3-pointers that season before transferring to Gonzaga in the spring of that year.

Venters tore his ACL just days before the Bulldogs' season opener against Yale last November. He played nearly 18 minutes in the exhibition win over Lewis-Clark State on Nov. 4, recording two points and an assist.

With Venters out again, Gonzaga's wing depth consists of 6'10 All-WCC wing Michael Ajayi, 6'10 sophomore Dusty Stromer and 6'10 sophomore Jun Seok Yeo. Arkansas native Khalif Battle has the flexibility to play some minutes at the 3 at 6'5″ and 195 pounds. Tarleton State sophomore Emmanuel Innocenti is also versatile at 6'5″ and 195 pounds.

The non-conference schedule for the 2024–25 season has yet to be confirmed, but the Zags' first confirmed game of the season will be at home against Arizona State on November 10.