Looking for Latest regular responses to Connections? Click here for today’s Connection hintsas well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzle.
TODAY Connections: Sports Edition a difficult one, with a set of unusual words. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for tips and answers.
Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.
Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Goes Out of Beta
Notifications for current Connections: Sports Edition groups
Here are four hints for the groups in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the difficult (and sometimes weird) purple group.
Notice the yellow group: The Buckeye State.
Green group hint: Hoops leaders.
Blue group hint: Sports cinema.
Purple group hint: Hoops teams hidden in words.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: An Ohio athlete.
Green group: NBA head coaches.
Blue group: Sports movies in 1996.
Purple group: Starts an NBA team, in the singular form.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are the answers today Connections: Sports Edition?
The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 31, 2026.
The yellow words in the current Connections
The theme is an Ohio athlete. The four answers are Bengal, Blue Jacket, Guardian and Red.
The green words in the current Connections
The theme is NBA head coaches. The four answers are Bickerstaff, Brown, Kidd and Lue.
The blue words in the current Connections
The theme was sports films in 1996. The four answers were Happy Gilmore, Kingpin, Space Jam and Tin Cup.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme begins with an NBA team, in singular form. The four answers are knickknack, network, Spurrier and Sundance.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred source of Google.






