As Rutgers Athletics Director Pat Hobbs enters the first full week in his search to replace Eddie Jordan as men's basketball coach, an outside-the-box candidate has entered the mix.

Jay Williams, a Plainfield, N.J., native who starred at St. Joseph-Metuchen and Duke before his promising NBA career was cut short following a motorcycle accident, interviewed with Hobbs Monday afternoon, three people with knowledge of the situation told NJ Advance late Monday night.

Neither Hobbs nor Williams were available for comment, but the three people said Williams has joined a list of candidates that includes Rhode Island's Dan Hurley and George Washington's Mike Lonergan.

One person familiar with the situation told NJ Advance Media that Hurley also interviewed with Hobbs, and he remains a top candidate for the vacancy. The person said Williams shouldn't be ruled out, but the current ESPN college basketball analyst is believed to be on the periphery at this point.

Still, insiders say Williams made a strong case to sell himself as the kind of splashy hire who would generate national headlines for a program that has been widely criticized amid a series of controversies over the 15 years since Williams chose to star for Duke rather than playing for his hometown Scarlet Knights.

While his life story is on display in a critically acclaimed memoir released earlier this year, Williams is one of the game's most recognizable figures as a respected analyst for ESPN.

Those close to Williams believe he would bring instant name recognition to a downtrodden program 25 years removed from its last NCAA Tournament berth. Williams isn't far removed from his days as the premier player in college basketball, and the recent summers he spent working out the likes of Stephen Curry and Kemba Walker -- two of the NBA's elite players -- could help get promising Rutgers guard Corey Sanders reach another level.

"It's funny because I don't look at Jason as 'outside-the-box,' '' said Kenny Smith, the former NBA point guard who serves as a basketball analyst for TNT and is getting set to cover the NCAA Tournament this month. "I think he's in-the-box because he's played the game at a high level. He announces it at a high level, he's critiqued it, and he's talking to the greatest coaches in the world, which a lot of guys don't have the opportunity to do. They don't have the opportunity to pick the brain of every coach in America. Because every coach has to answer his call at some point; same with me in the NBA. So he has access to a level of information that no one else has.''

While playing point guard at nearby St. Joseph-Metuchen, Williams morphed into New Jersey's most sought after recruit in the late 1990s, earning state Player of the Year honors and being named a Parade scholastic All-American. An avid chess player, Williams also played on the Middlesex County school's volleyball and soccer teams in addition to reportedly maintaining a 3.6 grade-point-average.

He seriously considered Rutgers, but the pull of playing at college basketball's preeminent program at the time was too much for Williams, who ended up leading the Blue Devils to the 2001 National Championship. Williams was the nation's most decorated player during his three seasons starring for coach Mike Krzyzewski, scoring 2,079 points, earning both the Naismith and Wooden awards as college basketball's Player of the Year, and graduating early with a degree in sociology in 2002.

He went on to become the second overall pick of the 2002 NBA Draft. After his Chicago Bulls career was derailed due to injuries suffered from the 2003 motorcycle accident, Williams recruited NBA Draft-eligible players for a Los Angeles-based sports agency, worked on the grassroots-basketball level for Nike and Under Armor, ran skills-developmental camps and expanded his Rolodex by serving as a motivational speaker at various Fortune 500 companies.

This year he penned an autobiography, "Life is Not an Accident: A Memoir of Reinvention,'' that details his inspirational journey. According to the book's description on Amazon, the memoir delves into "the scandalous recruiting process'' and he "speaks out about corruption -- among coaches, administrators, players, and alumni.''

"If you worked at IBM, like Jason has basketball-wise for 15 years, you'd be the most sought after person in that field. It's only in coaching where they say, 'Well, no, he doesn't have any experience,' '' Smith said. "Well, what are you talking about? Jay has the pedigree obviously playing under Coach K and now what he's done to elevate himself to one of the premier analysts in college basketball. So you don't count any of that?

"To me he's in the box (as a candidate). Being 'outside-the-box' would be someone who's never played at a high level, who hasn't been announcing. He can tell you what it takes to get to a National Championship team. He's been an integral part of it. He has 17 years of basketball experience that is unparalleled by anyone.

"Anyone who walks in and tries to get that job doesn't have the resume he has.''

Smith pointed to Steve Kerr, his former TNT colleague who went from analyzing games to leading the Golden State Warriors to the NBA Championship last year, as a coach who made a smooth transition from the microphone to the sideline in recent years.

"I think there's been a lot of success from guys, especially in the NBA, who came from the broadcast booth,'' Smith said. "They get an opportunity to not just (focus) on their own team. A guy like Jay, he's watching the entire landscape of college basketball. I just think he'd be great because the name and his relationship with the generation of today's players; he's a generation now guy. He's a guy who everybody turns to to get information and understand the game and what's going on. Today is all about face recognition to get into the door with the top athletes. He would definitely have that ability.''

Last spring, St. John's went the non-traditional route in tapping Chris Mullin as its head coach. Mullin worked in various capacities around the game, including the broadcast booth, but had no coaching experience before he was hired to lead his alma mater in New York City. Although he endured a last-place Big East campaign this season, St. John's boasts the nation's 18th-best recruiting class, according to 247Sports.com.

"I think going to coach in college is a little bit easier because you have a longer learning curve,'' Smith said. "You have more practice time. Whereas in the NBA, there's no time for practice. In the NCAA, you have four years to get guys better, and you have the opportunity to really put an imprint on a team. Jay's a magnet so he's not only going to help attract the best players, he's going to attract the best staff.''

A former North Carolina standout who enjoyed an 11-year NBA career highlighted by consecutive championships with the Houston Rockets in the mid-1990s, Smith quipped: "Jay's one of the few Duke guys I love. You know if I'm saying good things about a Duke guy, he must be really great.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.