The 1996 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament was held in March.
The tournament featured the league's ten teams, seeded based on their conference record.
Monmouth won the championship, their first, and received the conference's automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Tournament.
The NEC Men's Basketball Tournament consisted of a ten-team playoff format with all games played at the venue of the higher seed.
[1] Corey Albano, MU Mustafa Barksdale, MU Danny Basile, MAR Deon Hames, RID Riley Inge, MSM Charles Smith, RID