Meet North Farmington basketball's new secret weapon. No, it's not Ryan Hurst either.

Seeing Lee Hardy play, you'd think he spends his free time binge-watching highlights of former Detroit Pistons stars Ben Wallace and Dennis Rodman on YouTube. 

"Nah, I be watching like Michael Jordan and LeBron play," the 6-foot-6 North Farmington junior said. "I've been watching they highlights and seeing what they do."

Jordan and James wish they could withstand the knee scrapes that Hardy is currently exiting games with. 

Right now, Hardy is the Raiders' Mr. Do-It-All, as witnessed in their 80-26 victory Thursday at rival Farmington. 

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He dove on the floor for loose balls. He strong-armed opponents for jump balls. He packed the paint and grabbed rebounds. 

He had a dunk, a handful of buckets down low, a put-back and a jumper, totaling 16 points in all. Only West Bloomfield transfer Ryan Hurst finished with more points (scoring 21 of his game-high 22 points in the first half). 

Now here's the catch: Hardy hasn't been providing this kind of effort for the Raiders for very long. 

"He's really coming into his own about the last 10 days, two weeks," coach Todd Negoshian said. "He's starting to play more comfortably, and he's only played basketball for about the last few number of years. The more he plays, the more comfortable he's getting and the more confidence he's getting."

Wait, what? How is Diet Dikembe Mutombo not just naturally gifted? You're saying the guy who scored eight points in the third quarter alone, helping ignite the 40-point running-clock rule against his rival, is basically brand new? 

"He's young. He's only been playing basketball for a limited number of years so it's all new to him," Negoshian added. "He's only a junior who played on the JV for us last year because of our depth. It's all kind of new to him, too, but it's been unbelievable watching him progress." 

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Hardy didn't have an AAU start to his career like a lot of his teammates. 

He tried out for middle school basketball but was cut from the seventh-grade team. He made the eighth-grade squad, but he spent the season on the bench as a third-stringer. 

Hardy grew as a JV player, but his success on the basketball court started as soon as he took the weight room seriously. 

"I think the key is he's getting into the weight room with Billy Slobin, our strength and conditioning guy," Negoshian said. "They've been on a mission to get him bigger, stronger and tougher and to change his mentality. I think it shows every day as we've progressed.

"It's been huge. It's just another guy who does all the little stuff that we need in our program. It allows us to spread that out, and now we're not counting on one person to rebound or one person to block shots. It's coming from multiple people at multiple times, which gives us depth and allows kids to put less minutes on their legs, which is good."

Aside from past middle school woes motivating Hardy, he said he's also received some flack from outsiders who believed he should've already been playing at a high level. 

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He calls it "a lot of hate." Whatever it is, it's been motivating him to improve. 

"I just use that as motivation," he said. "Just a lot of people. They don't really matter as long as you just focus on the game. So I've got to thank my coach (Negoshian) for that because I wasn't doing that (playing well) two weeks ago.

"Coach's pushing me hard in practice because he wanted me to get physical. So I've been in the weight room a lot. Coach has been helping me a lot, mentally and physically. He wants me to be strong with the ball." 

North Farmington (8-1, 2-0 Oakland Activities Association-Red) continues to rank in the top 10 among the various polls out there. 

It's easy to see why.

Aside from Hurst, who's one of the best scorers in metro Detro, the talented cast around him, which includes Tyler Spratt (eight points), Landon Williams (seven) and Aaron RIce, gives the Raiders quite the mix of athleticism, size and scoring. 

Adding Hardy into that equation just makes them even scarier to try and stop. 

"It's just fun playing with your teammates," Hardy said. 

Farmington (2-6, 0-2) got nine points from Nick Morgan, seven from Tony Tolbert and four from Bassiru Jallow. 

Also for North Farmington, Donovin Williams scored 11 points off the bench. 

Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on Twitter @folsombrandonj.