When UC Riverside basketball coach Dennis Cutts went to get his car Sunday after flying back from the team’s road trip, the athletic director was reportedly already there waiting, termination notice in hand.

Firing a coach before the start of conference play is a rarity in college basketball and, apart from looming NCAA sanctions, almost unheard of in the Big West, where history suggests few of the teams are really out of it until the very end. So much so that even a team without a winning record in conference or overall play has been known to win the jackpot that is the league tournament and automatic NCAA Tournament berth that goes with it.

And, the Big West, a league that has crowned seven different tournament champions in as many years, might even be more wide-open than usual as the teams begin their 16-game schedules.

Consider that six of its nine teams — Hawaii, UC Irvine, UC Davis, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara — all received first-place votes in the preseason poll. And the parties have done little in the intervening weeks to suggest they can’t be worthy contenders.

“It is pretty much a blank chalkboard,” said commissioner Dennis Farrell, who has been in the conference front office for 38 years, 26 in his present capacity. “It is really wide open.”

So, why not UH?

That there is no clear favorite, no team head and shoulders above the rest to date, is encouraging news for the Rainbow Warriors, who are neither the most talented nor the most physically imposing team in the nine-member conference.

Long Beach State, most years, including this one, accumulates the most talented roster and plays among the most challenging nonconference schedules. As such, the 49ers have been one of UH’s biggest enduring headaches, including last season when they eliminated the ’Bows. Since the ’Bows joined the Big West the 49ers have led the series, 8-4 (a UH victory from 2015 was vacated as a result of NCAA rules violations). Moreover, UH is 0-5 at the Pyramid in conference play and 1-9 there overall.

Yet, UH (9-4) is a mere 1-point underdog against Long Beach State (6-10) on the consensus of Las Vegas betting lines tonight, its toughest stop on the two-game conference-opening road swing. Cal State Northridge (3-11) Saturday is the other game.

Win on the opening week and UH returns to the Stan Sheriff Center to play three of four games against projected contenders UCSB (11-3), UC Davis (9-5) and Cal State Fullerton (7-5). The other visitor is Cal Poly (5-9).

Not that UH, like its conference brethren, is without considerable questions. Whether UH’s guard play can hold up its end in what has traditionally been a backcourt-strong conference is among the more intriguing ones hanging over the Rainbow Warriors’ pursuit of a second championship in three years.

So, too, is whether UH can get its big men, Gibson Johnson, Jack Purchase, all-conference honorable mention forwards last season, and Mike Thomas, a starter two years ago, to deliver at the same time.

With four starters returning, the cloud of NCAA sanctions behind them and no dominant favorite in the conference, there should be a lot for UH to look forward to again in the arrival of the Big West schedule.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.