It's difficult to say which event would have sounded more incredible months ago: No. 4 retiring after verging on Super Bowl status, or the Badgers men's basketball team winning a share, and probably more, of the Big Ten title.
For Favre to call it quits, the guess was the Packers would have to go through a season similar to the 2006 campaign. But that's not close to what happened. Against all odds, Green Bay finished 10 games over .500 and was close to being on the world's biggest stage. Favre's unpredictable decision at least goes along with an unpredictable career.
For the Badgers to win the Big Ten title, however, who saw it coming, and how?
Basketball programs like Wisconsin's don't perennially stay in the hunt; that's a domain that belongs to schools like Duke, North Carolina and so on.
This year, the Badgers didn't follow that pattern of conventional wisdom.
That type of thinking did not have the Badgers in the top spots of the Big Ten standings, much less alone in first - which they could be if they win Saturday at Northwestern.
Before we give UW that distinction, let's remember that in the last meeting, UW didn't quite give the Wildcats the dusting they gave Penn State a couple days ago.
To be assured the title of Big Ten champions, Wisconsin had to overcome some strong currents holding it back.
Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor together averaged over 33 points per game last year. With their departure, even the most optimistic had to answer the question of how those points would be made up.
Amazingly, this year's team is scoring only about two points less than last year. How does that happen when the team leader in scoring goes to 12 points per game, down from 20?
This year's team can compensate for that with balance. Outside of Tucker and Taylor, no player gave the opponent reason to worry last year. Brian Butch and Michael Flowers averaged a combined 16 points per game. This season, that number is up to 22, and, more importantly, they have help from other players who have vastly improved.
Marcus Landry has basically doubled his average with nine more minutes of playing time. Butch is getting two more baskets with five more minutes.
And the best development among many has come at point guard. By the time this season is over, Trevon Hughes will have likely clocked four times as many minutes as he did last year. Doing that at the most difficult position on the floor, Hughes has gone from an afterthought last season to the team's second leading scorer, a player who takes it to the basket and draws fouls.
Defensively, whether it's the differential in opponent quality or not, the Badgers show themselves to be a stout defensive team. When you hold the opposition to 38 percent shooting, there's a margin for error on offense.
That has been good enough for the Badgers to have an improbably successful regular season. What would be just as improbable, given the Badgers collective experience, is a run of the same success later this month.
E-mail Jon at bortin@wisc.edu to talk about either Favre's retirement or UW's Big Ten basketball title.
