It's just about that time of the year again, when the party hats make an appearance, corks fly, and toasts are made.

For the UCLA women's basketball team, though, any thoughts of celebrating the New Year with Dick Clark might just have to be put on hold, as questions still linger for a group that will begin start of Pac-12 play tonight at 7pm against California at the John Wooden Center.

Namely, the Bruins are back to the lineup-by-availability routine at a point in the season when Coach Cori Close envisioned they would be at or near full strength. The already-short-handed team recently lost key forward Atonye Nyingifa for the rest of the season with a knee injury, leaving Close in quite a predicament in the wake of the conference season.

"It's been a bit of a crisis management," Close admitted on Wednesday. "There has been a lot of individual and even collective growth so far this season, but the pieces have changed so dramatically for us, and it's a challenge to establish continuity on both ends of the floor."

And considering the quality of their first pair of conference foes, the Bruins have little choice but to hit the ground running. After tonight's game against Cal, UCLA squares off against powerhouse Stanford on Saturday. As such, this week should provide some insight into how the Bruins stack up in the Pac-12's pecking order.

"Stanford and Cal have really separated themselves from the rest of the conference over the course of the preseason," Close said. "Both teams are battle-tested, very athletic, and deep. But at this point, it doesn't matter who we play or what we've accomplished in the preseason. We have to finish in the top four in the Pac-12 and make a deep run in the conference tournament."

All hope certainly isn't lost. Though they lose a surefire double-double machine and defensive stalwart in Nyingifa, the Bruins still have leading scorer Rebekah Gardner (15.2 ppg), as well as Markel Walker (12.0 ppg, 7.8 rpg), who will be looked upon to carry some of the scoring load.