Gonzaga guard Steele Venters to miss second straight season due to injury after injuring Achilles.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Gonzaga’s Steele Venters injured his left Achilles tendon and will miss the upcoming 2024-25 season, the guard’s second straight season missed due to injury.

Venters missed the entire 2023-24 season after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee two days before the regular-season opener. The school announced Tuesday that he´ll be sidelined for another season due to the Achilles injury.

“We are heartbroken for Steele,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said in a statement. “He was working so hard to come back from his knee injury. We will continue to support Steele through his healing process and know he will come back better and stronger.”

Venters was the Big Sky Conference player of the year in the 2022-23 season at Eastern Washington. Venters started his career as a walk-on before averaging 16.7 points and shooting 43% from 3-point range in his final season at Eastern Washington before transferring to Gonzaga.

Venters was expected to be a significant contributor for a Gonzaga roster that returns most of its key players from last year´s team that reached the Sweet 16 before losing to eventual national runner-up Purdue.

Gonzaga wing Steele Venters has suffered a season-ending injury for the second consecutive year.

Venters will miss the 2024-25 season with a left Achilles tendon injury, Gonzaga confirmed Tuesday in a release.

We are heartbroken for Steele,” GU head coach Mark Few said. “He was working so hard to come back from his knee injury. We will continue to support Steele through his healing process and know he will come back better and stronger.

Venters went down in practice last November during a rebounding drill with a torn ACL in his right knee a few days before the 2023-24 season opener against Yale.

The 6-foot-7, 200-pound Venters, who is listed as a redshirt junior, was reportedly on track to return for the upcoming season before his latest injury. He was seen in GU basketball photo and video posts on X at the team’s summer workouts. It wasn’t known how much he was able to participate in drills or when the Achilles injury occurred.

Venters transferred to Gonzaga after being named Big Sky Conference MVP following Eastern Washington’s 2022-23 season. He also tested the NBA draft waters that spring and summer before deciding to return to college basketball.

He was expected to start for the Zags before tearing his ACL. Freshman Dusty Stromer moved into the starting lineup until Gonzaga shuffled its starting unit with Ben Gregg replacing Stromer in January. 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 at peace with it for the most part,” Venters told The Spokesman-Review last January. “Now I’m just trying to cheer on the guys … It’s tough to sit out and watch these guys hoop, especially knowing I could be out there helping them.”

Venters’ role this season wasn’t determined, but he likely would have been prominent in the rotation. Pepperdine transfer Michael Ajayi, a 6-7 forward, has been projected by many as the front-runner to replace Watson in the starting lineup.

Gonzaga has one of its deepest rosters with multiple options at the wing/small forward position, including Ajayi, the 6-6 Stromer, 6-5 transfers Khalif Battle (Arkansas) and Emmanuel Innocenti (Tarleton State), and 6-8 junior Jun Seok Yeo, who saw limited playing time last season. Ajayi, Yeo and the 6-10 Gregg have the versatility to play the ‘3’ or ‘4’ and Gregg has logged time at the ‘5.’