SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Four games into the season, the sample is big enough to draw some conclusions about this year’s URI basketball team. One of the most obvious is that this Rhody club, while playing in much the same style as last winter’s 21-12 squad, does have some distinct differences.

One, in particular, gives the Rams hope that this team could be better than last year’s club. That is its ability to handle and pass the ball.

That was a weakness last season. URI had almost as many turnovers (462) as assists (490). It was a question mark entering this year, too, since Parfait Bitee, last year’s point guard, graduated.

That left Marquis Jones as the only true point guard in the program. Jones averaged only nine minutes a game as a freshman. There was speculation, when the team brought in Massachusetts native Stevie Mejia, that Mejia might step right in and take over the job. The 5-foot-8 guard was highly rated coming out of Lawrence Academy and Rhody coach Jim Baron has had great success in the past with small point guards.

However, as the Rams prepare to host Hartford tonight at 7 in the Ryan Center in the second of four games the Rams will play in The Philly Hoop Group Classic, Jones has clearly earned the job. He is dramatically improved. He has played well.

Jones enters play tonight with 18 assists and six turnovers. He is not as good a shooter as Bitee, who contended for the Atlantic 10 3-point shooting title last season. But he might be a better fit for this team. The Rams are loaded with players who can score. Jones is doing a marvelous job getting his teammates good shots, as is evidenced by the fact that URI is shooting nearly 50 percent from the field as a team.

“My job is to make everybody else better and to be the main focus point on defense by pressuring the point guard,” Jones says. “I’m trying to get everybody else better, that’s where I get my pleasure.”

The improved ball movement goes beyond Jones. Other Rhody players are showing marked improvement. Delroy James is a case in point.

James joined the team in December last year after missing three semesters for academic reasons. He is one of the most highly touted recruits URI has signed in recent years. But he struggled to get in the flow when he joined the team, especially handling the ball. In the 20 games played, he had 29 turnovers with only four assists.

The 6-foot-7 forward is a slasher who loves to take the ball to the basket. Last year, he often was out of control when he did that. But he has had a full offseason to work with the team. It was clear early on that he was the guy who was being counted on to move into the spot vacated by Will Daniels, the team’s top scorer last season.

James is averaging 13 points, which is a positive sign all by itself. But he also is much improved handling and passing the ball. Anyone who saw the three games last week saw James take the ball to the hoop off the dribble — and then set up a teammate. He made several pretty drop-down passes to a teammate near the hoop, passes he did not make before.

James already has twice as many assists, eight, as he did all last year. That goes with only six turnovers.

Add the fact that the two other guards who see extensive duty, Jimmy Baron and Keith Cothran, both are improved with their ability to take the ball of the dribble and the Rams clearly are a better team handling and passing the ball than they were last season.

There are still areas where URI has to prove itself. The defense, especially interior defense, remains a major question mark. And the team will be challenged, when games are slowed, in producing halfcourt offense because the 3-point shooting is not as good as last year.

Tonight’s opponent, Hartford (1-3) is coming off an 18-16 record, the school’s first winning record since 2002-03. Under second-year coach Dan Leibovitz, a former player at Pennsylvania and an assistant to John Chaney at Temple, the Hawks have four starters returning and are expected to contend in the America East Conference.

Hartford was 10-6 in conference play last season and reached the tournament finals before losing to Maryland-Baltimore County. Still, it is a team URI will be favored to beat.

pkenyon@projo.com