The 1987 Big East men's basketball tournament took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City, from March 5 to March 8, 1987. Its winner received the Big East Conference's automatic bid to the 1987 NCAA tournament. It is a single-elimination tournament with four rounds. Georgetown had the best regular season conference record and received the #1 seed. Georgetown defeated Syracuse in the championship game 69–59, to claim its fifth Big East tournament championship.