Play forward. It's a mind-set while playing basketball that Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan teaches to his players.

It's also what U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt told University of Utah law school graduates Friday during the commencement ceremony at Kingsbury Hall.

Sloan once told Leavitt that retired Jazzman John Stockton was the best at playing forward, which means he would always be thinking about the next play. Stockton wasn't a player who took time for demonstrative celebrations while the clock was running.

"If he made a mistake, he never looked back," Leavitt said.

The former Utah governor acknowledged his own son and 2005 U. law school graduate Michael S. Leavitt, and then focused most of his speech on the subject of decision-making.

"I have not mastered decision-making — no one has," Leavitt said.

His advice to the group of 141 graduates was to help decision-makers make their own decisions.

Set a time frame within which to make decisions, arrange to have advisers, eliminate "unacceptable" choices and then make the decision, Leavitt added. It's an approach that has helped Leavitt as a member of President Bush's Cabinet.

At the close of his speech, Leavitt recalled a meeting of secretaries and ministers in Japan. In alphabetical order by country, each person was required to give a short speech. By the time it was Leavitt's turn, people were reading papers and having conversations.

But when Leavitt stood to give his speech, the room fell silent, which he attributed to a show of respect for the United States.

"Let us remain the land of the free and home of the brave," Leavitt told graduates.

Scott Matheson, dean of the U.'s S.J. Quinney College of Law, urged graduates to never forget that their colleagues may also become their friends.

"Through it all," Matheson said, "your friends will provide support and understanding."

U. President Michael Young took a few moments to highlight interesting factoids about this year's group of graduates, from which 89 students speak a combined 21 different languages. Students transferred to the U. law school from more than 50 different colleges and universities. The most common areas of study among the group were engineering and English.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com