Washington picked up its second transfer commitment of the offseason tonight when Gonzaga transfer Steele Venters announced his pledge to the Huskies on social media. The 6’7 Venters averaged 5.0 points per game last season on 36.7% 3-point shooting.
This will be Venters’ 7th season on a college roster across 3 schools and all of them have come in the state of Washington (assuming Venters receives a medical waiver as expected). Venters began his college career at Eastern Washington where he came off the bench as a freshman. He exploded the next two seasons averaging 15+ points per game on a combined 40% 3-point shooting pace and picked up a Big Sky player of the year award. That led to Venters becoming one of the most sought after players in the transfer portal that offseason before he eventually signed with Gonzaga.
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It has unfortunately been just setback after setback for Venters since then. He ended up sustaining a torn Achilles in the offseason after his junior year and missed that entire season. Then while rehabbing from that injury he suffered a torn ACL and once again missed the whole year.
This past fall he was finally able to return the court and did so mostly in a bench capacity for a Gonzaga team that ended up a #3 seed in the NCAA tournament. Venters started 10 games for the Zags as an extreme 3-point specialist taking 98 outside shots compared to just 16 inside the arc. He eventually fell out of the rotation and played just 55 minutes over Gonzaga’s final 14 games. Venters technically shot a career worst 36.7% from three-point range but still would’ve been 3rd on this past Washington roster in made threes despite only playing 29% of Gonzaga’s total minutes.
It’s clear that Danny Sprinkle is attempting to rectify the flaws on his past two Washington rosters with a focus on shooting early on in the portal this cycle. Washington’s first two adds of Venters plus Davidson transfer Parker Friedrichsen both have a season on their resume having made 65+ three-pointers on 40%+ shooting. The only recent Huskies to even come close to that for Washington over the last decade are Moses Wood (80 made on 39.6% shooting), Jaylen Nowell (51 made on 44% shooting), and David Crisp (74 made on 37.4% shooting).
The Huskies were snakebitten by injuries this past season (given their luck, an actual snake bite is about the only injury a UW player didn’t sustain this year) and so there is certainly risk bringing in a player who has suffered multiple season-ending injuries. But beggars can’t be choosers and the hope is that being an extra year removed from those surgeries will allow Venters to look more like the weapon he was at Eastern Washington.
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There’s a chance that Venters isn’t the only local add from Gonzaga in the portal this cycle. PG transfer Braeden Smith is reportedly on a visit to UW per Jack McCauley. Washington is also hoping to hear good news from recent visitors such as Boise State PF/C Drew Fielder, Texas Tech SF LeJuan Watts, and Saint Mary’s SG Mikey Lewis.
Washington has plenty of holes to fill still with 6 members of the team having entered the transfer portal and another 4 either running out of eligibility or turning pro. Three of the departures have found their new home with Zoom Diallo today committing to be the new point guard at Kentucky under fellow UW-Kentucky transfer-ee Mark Pope (plus JJ Mandaquit to Arizona and Christian Nitu to McNeese).
Here’s a look at the current state of the roster:
PG-
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SG- Wesley Yates III, Parker Friedrichsen, BJ Roy
SF- Steele Venters, Jasir Rencher
PF- Nikola Dzepina, Lathan Sommerville
C- Mady Traore
