Gonzaga's Steele Venters out for season with knee injury
Steele Venters injured his knee in practice this week and is out for the season, according to college basketball analyst Jeff Goodman, who reported the news on Twitter. (The Gonzaga men's basketball team issued a press release on Friday stating that Venters is out for the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee in practice.)
The 6-foot-7 wing started in the Zags' exhibition victory over Lewis-Clark State last week and was expected to start in the Bulldogs' 2023-24 season opener Friday at home against Yale.
Venters transferred to Gonzaga in April after spending the last four seasons at Eastern Washington, where he won the 2022-23 Big Sky Player of the Year Award. He was one of the most coveted players in the transfer portal after averaging 15.3 points per game and shooting 37.1% from deep for the Eagles. The Ellensburg, Washington native ranked in the 89th percentile of all players on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers last season and knocked down the most triples in the conference with 78.
Venters, who had just one Division-I offer coming out of high school, was expected to play a pivotal role as a starter for the Bulldogs this season. In the exhibition opener against Lewis-Clark State, he finished with two points on 1-for-4 shooting from the floor in nearly 18 minutes of action. That followed a 12-point outing against No. 20 Baylor in a closed-door scrimmage in October.
With Venters out for the season, Mark Few has some difficult decisions to make regarding his rotation. Dusty Stromer, a 6-foot-6 four-star recruit, is a candidate to step in and start on the perimeter if Few elects to go with a three-guard lineup. Conversely, Anton Watson could also slide into the wing position, allowing for either Ben Gregg or Braden Huff to play alongside Graham Ike in the frontcourt for a more "tall-ball" lineup.
