The 1979 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament was held February 23–25 at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[1] Jacksonville defeated South Florida in the championship game, 68–54, to win their first Sun Belt men's basketball tournament.
The Dolphins, in turn, received a bid for the 1979 NCAA tournament, where they lost to Virginia Tech in the first round.
It was the first time that all the games of a college basketball conference championship tournament were televised.
They were seeded based on regular season conference records with the top two teams earning byes to the semifinal round.