Former Gonzaga, EWU sharpshooter transferring to UW Huskies
Ellensburg native Steele Venters, a former Big Sky MVP at Eastern Washington, is transferring to the UW Huskies after an injury-marred tenure at Gonzaga.
Steele Venters and Graham Ike of the Gonzaga Bulldogs celebrate a shot in the second half against the Creighton Bluejays at McCarthey Athletic Center on November 11, 2025 in Spokane, Washington. (Myk Crawford/Getty Images)
(Myk Crawford/Getty Images)
Ellensburg native and former Big Sky Conference MVP Steele Venters is set to play college basketball for a third different in-state team.
Venters, a 6-foot-7 sharpshooter who spent four years at Eastern Washington and three injury-marred years at Gonzaga, announced on social media Wednesday night that he’s transferring from the Zags to the UW Huskies.
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Venters has a 39.6% career 3-point shooting percentage over four seasons of playing time with Eastern and Gonzaga. The 2019 Ellensburg High School graduate spent one season redshirting at Eastern and had two seasons wiped out by injuries at Gonzaga.
Venters will need an NCAA medical waiver to play a fifth college season at UW.
As a redshirt sophomore at Eastern in 2021-22, Venters averaged 16.7 points per game while shooting 43.4% from 3-point range, which ranked seventh in Division I.
In 2022-23, Venters earned Big Sky MVP honors at Eastern after averaging 15.3 points per game and shooting 37.1% from beyond the arc.
Venters then transferred to Gonzaga, where he was struck by injury misfortune. He missed the 2023-24 season after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee just two days prior to the season opener. And the following summer, he suffered a torn left Achilles that sidelined him for the 2024-25 campaign.
Venters finally got a chance to take the court for Gonzaga this past season. He averaged 5.0 points per game and shot 36.7% from 3-point range, while making 10 starts and appearing in 27 games.
However, after starting nine straight games in the middle of the season, Venters fell out of Gonzaga’s rotation down the stretch. He didn’t play in the Zags’ final five games, including their two NCAA Tournament games.
Venters is UW’s second incoming transfer. He joins 6-foot-3 guard Parker Friedrichsen, who transferred from Davidson after averaging 10.8 points per game and shooting 40.5% from 3-point range this past season.
Two players from UW’s 2025-26 team have transferred to other programs, with guard Zoom Diallo headed to Kentucky and guard JJ Mandaquit to Arizona. And according to 247Sports, four other Huskies from this past season have entered the transfer portal: guard Desmond Claude, center Franck Kepnang, guard Courtland Muldrew and forward Christian Nitu.
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Comments
1 Comments
Yeah, he couldn't cut it for Gonzaga. They needed 3 Point shooters to back up Huff and Ike and he failed to live up to expectations.