The 1979 UAAP men's basketball tournament was the 42nd year of the men's tournament of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP)'s basketball championship. Hosted by University of the Philippines, the FEU Tamaraws defeated the UST Glowing Goldies in the finals taking their tenth overall UAAP men's basketball championship and the first of their three-peat title run from 1979 to 1981. The Tamaraws would eventually achieve the first sweep of the tournament (12–0) the following year and were automatically declared champions. The UAAP have seven teams then with the admission of Ateneo in 1978. This was the last finals match-up between FEU and UST until 2015 in Season 78. This was also the year when the UAAP first implemented the twice to beat finals format.
