Wake Forest University named Steve Weinman as General Manager for Basketball and Senior Associate Athletics Director for Analytics, the first combined appointment of its kind in the ACC. The hire places roster construction, NIL coordination, and department-wide analytics infrastructure under a single executive reporting directly to athletics director John Currie.

Weinman arrives from Georgia, where he spent three seasons as Director of Player Personnel and Analytics under head coach Mike White. Before that, he worked at Florida under White from 2016 to 2021, running analytics and assist-coaching responsibilities during the Gators' 2017 Elite Eight run. His résumé includes stops at Louisiana Tech and a graduate assistant role at SMU. Wake Forest did not disclose compensation, though comparable GM roles at peer ACC programs now command $250,000 to $400,000 base salaries before incentive structures tied to tournament performance and roster retention.

The dual-title structure reflects how mid-tier Power Five programs now compete. Wake Forest finished 16-16 last season under second-year head coach Steve Forbes, missing the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year. Forbes runs a high-turnover roster model—seven new scholarship players arrived in 2023-24 via transfer portal and recruiting—and Weinman inherits the infrastructure to manage that churn. His analytics mandate extends beyond men's basketball: Wake Forest's 16 varsity programs will feed performance data into a centralized system Weinman oversees, a structure more common in professional sports than college athletics.

The hire also clarifies Wake Forest's NIL posture. Weinman's Georgia tenure coincided with that program's pivot toward collective-funded roster assembly, and his player-personnel title suggests he will coordinate directly with the Deacon Club collective, which raised an estimated $3 million to $5 million in 2023-24. ACC programs without dedicated GM roles now rely on assistant coaches to juggle recruiting, portal negotiations, and collective liaison work—a model that breaks when those assistants leave for promotions. Weinman's appointment removes that fragility.

The move arrives two weeks before the April 16 transfer portal deadline and three months before Wake Forest's July donor event cycle, when major gifts typically close. Forbes enters Year Three with his seat warm but not hot; athletic department sources expect one more recruiting class before meaningful pressure. Weinman's ability to retain current roster pieces—starting guard Hunter Sallis, who averaged 18.0 points per game, faces NBA Draft and portal decisions—will determine whether Forbes gets that runway.

Watch for Weinman's first visible decision: whether Wake Forest pursues a high-major transfer center before the spring window closes, and whether that pursuit involves six-figure collective commitments that would signal new spending appetite. Also monitor whether other ACC programs without standalone GMs—Boston College, Virginia Tech—move to replicate the combined analytics structure before the summer hiring cycle ends. Finally, Forbes' staff has one open assistant position; how quickly that fills, and whether Weinman influences the choice, will show where power actually sits.

Wake Forest plays its final regular-season home game on March 9, 2025. Weinman starts immediately.