NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026 (#771)

Tuesday’s Connections: Sports Edition from The Athletic and New York Times (NYT) Games is puzzle #771, for Nov. 3, 2026. Hints for each group come first, then the answers in a spoiler section.

How the Sports Edition works

It is the sports version of Connections, built by The Athletic with New York Times Games. You sort 16 sports terms into four groups of four and can make four mistakes. It launched on Feb. 9, 2025, with a football puzzle, and new puzzles post at midnight local time, according to The Athletic’s announcement.

Solving tips

Start with the group whose tiles all mean nearly the same thing. When a word looks too plain for a sports puzzle, ask whether it could be a last name. Tuesday’s board rewards that habit, because four of its tiles are people.

Tuesday’s hints, #771, Nov. 3, 2026

Tuesday’s board moves from a player’s nerve to the training table, the sideline and the rooms behind the court.

• Yellow: Four words for toughness and nerve when a game gets hard.
• Green: Four things a trainer keeps close to wrap, protect or cool an injury.
• Blue: Four last names. Each belongs to a head coach in men’s college basketball.
• Purple: Four words that can come before the name of a space a team uses away from the court or field.

Watch for the overlap: one training supply could also sit in front of the purple word, and the four coaches’ names all read like ordinary English words.

More of Tuesday’s puzzles: Connections hints, Wordle hint, Spelling Bee hints and Pips hints. Monday’s page is still up: Connections: Sports Edition #770. Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar.

Tuesday’s answers, #771, Nov. 3, 2026 (spoilers)

The 16 tiles, spelled out: grit, guts, mettle and moxie; bandages, ice pack, pre-wrap and tape; Drew, Few, Painter and Self; and dressing, film, locker and weight.

• Yellow, Fortitude: Grit, Guts, Mettle, Moxie
• Green, Supplies for an Athletic Trainer: Bandages, Ice Pack, Pre-Wrap, Tape
• Blue, Men’s College Basketball Coaches: Drew, Few, Painter, Self
• Purple, ___ Room: Dressing, Film, Locker, Weight

What each entry is, group by group:

• Yellow: Four words for courage and staying power under pressure.
• Green: Four items from a trainer’s kit. Pre-wrap is the thin foam layer that goes on before athletic tape.
• Blue: Four surnames of men’s college basketball coaches, as both published solutions label the group.
• Purple: Dressing room, film room, locker room and weight room, all spaces a team uses away from the field.

Why Tuesday’s traps worked

Drew, Few, Painter and Self read like a verb, a quantity, a job and a pronoun, so few players see names at first. Tape tempts you toward the purple group, since “tape room” sounds right next to film room, but it belongs with the trainer’s supplies.

Beebom and Nerd’s Chalk list the same four groups. Puzzle #772 arrives at midnight.