The 1996 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 1–5 at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas.
[1] New Orleans defeated hosts, and fellow regular season co-champions, Arkansas–Little Rock in the championship game, 57–56, to win their second Sun Belt men's basketball tournament.
It was UNO's first Sun Belt title since 1978 and first since being re-admitted to the conference in 1992.
The Privateers, in turn, received an automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA tournament.
No other Sun Belt members were invited to the tournament.