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Today's Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. Lots of very short clues, some of which aren't even real words. If you're struggling with the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the 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 Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Vital sports equipment.

Green group hint: College nicknames.

Blue group hint: Not small.

Purple group hint: Hoops teams, if you play around with their names.

Answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Balls.

Green group: Big Ten school initialisms

Blue group: "Big" baseball nicknames.

Purple group: NBA teams, minus their first and last letter.

Read more: The Best and Worst Letters for Wordle, According to the Data

What are today's Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today's Connections

The theme is balls. The four answers are bocce, cue, golf and wiffle.

The green words in today's Connections

The theme is Big Ten school initialisms. The four answers are NU, OSU, UM and USC.

The blue words in today's Connections

The theme is "Big" baseball nicknames. The four answers are Hurt, Mac, Papi and Unit.

The purple words in today's Connections

The theme is NBA teams, minus their first and last letter. The four answers are acer (Pacers), awk (Hawks), ea (Heat) and nick (Knicks).

Toughest Connections: Sports Edition categories

The Connections: Sports Edition puzzle can be tough, but it really depends on which sports you know the most about. My husband aces anything having to do with Formula 1, my best friend is a hockey buff, and I can answer any question about Minnesota teams.

That said, it's hard to pick the toughest Connections categories, but here are some I found exceptionally mind-blowing.

#1: Serie A Clubs. Answers: Atalanta, Juventus, Lazio, Roma.

#2: WNBA MVPs. Answers: Catchings, Delle Donne, Fowles and Stewart.

#3: Premier League team nicknames. Answers: Bees, Cherries, Foxes and Hammers.

#4: Homophones of NBA player names. Answers: Barns, Connect, Heart and Hero.