The low opinion of Walker is because nothing about the Groce era indicated to me that there was a diamond of an assistant hidden in the wreckage.
And I am quite certain that Tilmon and a very good chance at Smith were presumed by Whitman (not to mention by Walker himself), to be part of the deal when making Walker a part of the Illinois package.
I find the idea that Walker would have had even a passing chance at the job without the presumption that his presence guaranteed Tilmon to be totally preposterous. Whitman thought he could have his cake and eat it too. Underwood bought it. Both got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
It's bad judgment by all parties, and it's a tremendous waste of a very precious resource. I would have started fresh and let the recruits walk if they really wanted to. But AT THE VERY LEAST, you need to be 1000% sure you have Tilmon locked down before Walker gets that offer. Whitman panicked when Cuonzo made that big splash at Mizzou. And Cuonzo has now played us for absolute chumps, poaching Tilmon without even having to hire Walker.
It's the kind of thing that happens to a rookie AD feeling enormous pressure to shoot the moon.
The first three assistant coaches you hire don't end a coaching administration. I'm not jumping off any tall buildings over here. But big mistakes were made in this process by multiple different parties, and admitting and studying and processing mistakes is how you get better.