They would also ensure protection for the enterprise in the event that the unsuspecting bookmakers, all of whom had toughs at their disposal to collect unpaid debts, discovered they were being swindled. Hill and Burke were brought into the scheme, after receiving approval from Lucchese family capo Paul Vario. Burke, through Hill, would front the money to pay the players, forwarding the money through Mazzei and the Perla brothers. The same channels would be used for the passing of the point spread from Burke and Hill to the players. Burke had Hill fly to Boston on November 16, 1978, to meet with Mazzei, Kuhn, Tony Perla, and any other member of the Eagles team interested in participating in their scheme. Said Hill, "I asked the players which of the upcoming games they felt we could shave. Sweeney took out one of those little schedule cards, circled the games he thought we could fool around with, and gave the card to me. They kept saying that they liked the idea of just shaving points and not blowing the games." However, as noted below, the scheme also worked in games where the Eagles were expected to lose anyway, with them shaving points so that the syndicate could bet on the other team winning by more than the point spread. After discussing their strategy with Kuhn and Sweeney, it was agreed that an upcoming game against Providence would be an appropriate test for their scheme. Point fixing The Providence game was played on December 6, 1978, and Boston College was favored to win by six to seven points. Kuhn was thus expected to keep the score below the six- to seven-point margin. The test run for the scheme proved unsuccessful when Boston College's team established an early lead and ultimately won the game by nineteen points. Enraged by their gambling loss, the Perla brothers, along with Mazzei, Burke, and Hill, decided to recruit additional Eagles players to enhance their control over the outcome of the games. They had Kuhn approach Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on the team, but it has never been proven if Cobb agreed to cooperate. Burke instructed Hill to warn the players to keep to their end of the deal because "you can't play basketball with broken hands." The December 16 game against Harvard was chosen as the second test for the scheme. Boston College was favored by twelve