Liza Karlen had a lot to think about since her senior season with the Marquette women's basketball team ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in March.

Most of her brain space was dedicated to finishing her challenging engineering degree. In order to graduate, Karlen needed to complete her senior design project with a small group of aspiring engineers that included a presentation and a 100-plus-page report. Their project was to design a recreation center like the one being built on MU's campus.

"We had to design the rec center from concrete, seal and timber," Karlen said Tuesday. "So making designs for that and then coming up with the construction process. Timeline, cost estimates, things like that.

"It was cool to see because it’s actually going up right now. Obviously civil engineers, you can’t make a product or something like the mechanical and electrical engineers do. It’s moreso theoretical. You can’t actually build a building. For ours, to be right across (the street) and see it get done is pretty cool."

Even with all the blueprints and thoughts about load-bearing walls, something else was building up in Karlen's mind. She decided that she wanted to play a fifth season of college basketball, leading to a head-spinning recruitment.

Karlen committed to national power Notre Dame on Sunday.

"I was going back and forth, college has just been a lot with school and engineering," Karlen said. "It’s been a tough four years but worth it.

"It was funny, we were actually at Notre Dame when it kind of all set in. You know what, I want to go do a fifth year. I want to experience what it’s like to play in March and to go far in March and not, like, hope that you’re going to make the Tournament.

"I just feel like women’s basketball right now, especially college, you’re kind of living in history. There’s so much coverage on it, there’s so much going on around it right now and I have the opportunity to take one more year and try and play on that next level and play in a Final Four or win a national championship. I think that it’s too good of an opportunity to pass up."

Liza Karlen chose between UConn, USC and Notre Dame

Karlen's career with the Golden Eagles ended March 23 in South Bend, Indiana, when MU lost to Ole Miss.

The day before, former MU coach Megan Duffy – now at Virginia Tech – had given her players a tour of the Notre Dame campus. Duffy was a standout guard for the Fighting Irish from 2002-06. Karlen couldn't come along because, of course, she was overloaded with engineering schoolwork.

"Even playing in their arena was really cool to see all those banners," Karlen said. "It was definitely a little bit ironic, I would have never guessed I would have ended up there."

Karlen hit the NCAA transfer portal April 1. Being a versatile 6-foot-3 forward who averaged 17.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game and was an unanimous first-team all-Big East pick, Karlen immediately saw her phone blow up with texts and calls from coaches.

"It was crazy the first day," Karlen said. "I felt super lucky because all these schools were calling me.

"It’s crazy, it was very different from the first time around. My top three were (UW-)Madison, Penn State and Marquette, going out of high school. And now my top three were UConn, Notre Dame and USC. It was so crazy just to talk to these coaches and even be considered for teams like this."

Notre Dame, which has made three straight Sweet 16s under head coach Niele Ivey, soon felt like the right choice. Karlen liked the culture and the the basketball fit.

"They actually run a lot of the same offense that we did at Marquette," Karlen said. "Post handling it basically anywhere, posts starting the break.

"They love transition play, so that stood out to me. They have the offense where the post gets it at the elbow/slot area, and that’s a spot that I’m super comfortable in. They play fast, so they cut a lot . They rebound the ball really well. And they don’t really have true bigs. Their bigs are versatile, they stretch the floor. They have the green light to shoot the ball. All the things that were great for me."

The Irish are expected to be one of the top teams in the country next season, with Karlen and fellow transfer Liatu King from Pittsburgh bolstering a strong group of returning players led by star guards Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles.

Notre Dame also has Cassandre Prosper, the sister of former MU standout Olivier-Maxence Prosper.

"I actually talked to her a lot on the visit," Karlen said. "That was pretty cool to have that slight Marquette connection there."

Karlen said Duffy was ecstatic about Karlen's choice.

"I never really understood kind of what she was talking about with Notre Dame and the culture that’s there and all the traditions that come with Notre Dame as well," Karlen said. "But I got a glimpse of it at my visit and I’m really excited to experience that next year."

Karlen will get master's degree at Notre Dame

Karlen is pleased with how everything turned out over the last month, both with her senior design project and her choice of Notre Dame. Her MU teammates all attended Karlen's group presentation, even with all the enigneering talk of concrete density.

"It was nice to get all that support," Karlen said. "I don’t think they knew what I was talking about, but it's all right."

Karlen finishes up her time at MU this week, and will get a brief break before heading to South Bend in early June.

"That Notre Dame degree is going to be so valuable to me, regardless of kind of what that’s in," she said. "Just because their network is so strong. The business school is very strong, so I’m actually getting a master’s in management, which is a one-year program in the business school.”

Like a good engineer, Karlen is building off a solid foundation.

"Just trying to manage so many things in my life at once, whether that’s personal relationships or school or basketball and trying to navigate that balance in my life, that’s something that I definitely had to learn quickly at Marquette," Karlen said. "That’s helped me so much and I think it’s going to serve me well in the real world as well."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette's Liza Karlen is transferring to Notre Dame over UConn, USC