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Inside The Huskies

Huskies Pick Up Shooter Entering 8th College Season

Steele Venters will come across the state from Gonzaga to Montlake.
Dan Raley|
Steele Venters has gone from Gonzaga to the UW.
Steele Venters has gone from Gonzaga to the UW. | James Snook-Imagn Images

Just when Franck Kepnang left and presumably took his extensive medical files with him, Steele Venters will join the University of Washington basketball team with a challenging health history that certainly rivals the departed big man.

The 6-foot-7 forward originally from Ellensburg, Washington and formerly of Gonzaga and Eastern Washington will join his third state-based college team after committing to the Huskies on Wednesday night.

Danny Sprinkle's coaching staff is hoping Venters can help solve the UW's 3-point shooting woes of recent seasons and return to the form that made him go from an Eastern walk-on in 2020 to the 2023 Big Sky Most Valuable Player.

But first Venters has to stay healthy -- he missed the 2025 season with an Achilles tendon tear and the season before with an ACL injury, both while at Gonzaga.

He comes to Montlake after playing 27 games and starting 10 for a 34-6 Zags team, with his role diminishing once Gonzaga reached March and went into postseason play.

Venters, armed with multiple medical waivers, will be entering his eighth college basketball season at the UW.

In his most accurate season, Venters connected on 45.6 percent of all shots, and 43.4 percent of his 3-point attempts (86 of 198), in 2022 for Eastern Washington.

Gonzaga brought him across town from Eastern largely for his long-range marksmanship.

"That's kind of my role on this team," Venters told Gonzaga Bulldogs on SI. "It helps all these guys create space, just me being able to space the floor, so, I'm always looking to hunt shots and always know the next one's going in."

Gonzaga forward Steele Venters (2) gets ready to shoot against North Florida.
Gonzaga forward Steele Venters (2) gets ready to shoot against North Florida. | James Snook-Imagn Images

He redshirted for Eastern in 2020 and played in 17 games the following season that was disrupted by the COVID pandemic, the latter becoming a free season for him.

In 2022, Venters was a second-team All-Big Sky selection after averaging 16.7 ppg and the aforementioned shooting percentages.

With teams doubling up on him in 2023, his scoring and 3-point shooting percentage dipped some, to 15.3 ppg and 37.1, but he had eight 20-point games. He was named first-team All-Big Sky and as the MVP.

Venters finally got a chance to play at Gonzaga in this past season and started in 10 of his 27 appearances, averaging just 5 points and 1.3 rebounds per outing. He shot 36.7 percent (36 of 98) from behind the line.

He gives the Huskies a second 3-point shooter out of the transfer portal to go with guard Parker Friedrichsen, formerly of Wake Forest and Davidson.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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