The 1996 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was held March 1–5 at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas. 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.