1996 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament

1996 Northeast Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1995–96
Teams	10
Finals site	William T. Boylan Gymnasium West Long Branch, NJ
Champions	Monmouth (1st title)
Winning coach	Wayne Szoke (1st title)
MVP	Corey Albano (Monmouth)
Northeast Conference men's basketball tournaments

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.

1995–96 Northeast Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Mount St. Mary's	16	–	2		.889			21	–	8		.724
Marist	14	–	4		.778			22	–	7		.759
Monmouth †	14	–	4		.778			20	–	10		.667
Rider	12	–	6		.667			19	–	11		.633
Saint Francis (PA)	11	–	7		.611			13	–	14		.481
Wagner	7	–	11		.389			10	–	17		.370
Fairleigh Dickinson	6	–	12		.333			7	–	20		.259
Long Island	5	–	13		.278			9	–	19		.321
St. Francis Brooklyn	3	–	15		.167			9	–	18		.333
Robert Morris	2	–	16		.111			5	–	23		.179
† 1996 NEC tournament winner

Format

The NEC Men's Basketball Tournament consisted of a ten-team playoff format with all games played at the venue of the higher seed. The first round was played by the four lowest seeds (7–10) and the other teams received a bye.

Bracket

	First round					Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Championship Game
						1	Mount St. Mary's	93
	8	Long Island	82			9	Long Island	58
	9	St. Francis Brooklyn	63								1	Mount St. Mary's	70
											4	Rider	74
						4	Rider	84
						5	Saint Francis (PA)	70
																4	Rider	59
																3	Monmouth	60
						2	Marist	70
	7	Fairleigh Dickinson	80			10	Robert Morris	51
	10	Robert Morris	87								2	Marist	56
											3	Monmouth	57
						3	Monmouth	64
						6	Wagner	55

All-tournament team

Tournament MVP in bold.

1996 NEC All-Tournament Team

Corey Albano, MU Mustafa Barksdale, MU Danny Basile, MAR Deon Hames, RID Riley Inge, MSM Charles Smith, RID