Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 71-68 win against San Jose State on Tuesday night at Viejas Arena:

1. Hair dryer

Brian Dutcher is a mild-mannered, measured, amiable guy. He doesn’t have to raise his voice to make a point and tends not to single out individuals for their transgressions in front of others. And on the rare occasion he does, folks tend to pay attention.

Like Miles Byrd on Tuesday night.

Dutcher lit into his redshirt sophomore guard during a first-half timeout after he and Taj DeGourville were arguing over a defensive mix-up (and the true freshman was right). Dutcher continued in the halftime locker room.

“I got on Byrd, I was hard on Byrd,” Dutcher said afterward. “I told him I wasn’t happy with the way he was playing. He was pressing his game too hard. And he responded, you know? I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think he could handle it. This is his third year in the program, and I got on him a little bit, maybe more than I should have.

“But to his credit, he came out and performed really well in the second half, hit timely 3s and got the momentum going for us.”

Byrd acknowledged and appreciated the verbal hair dryer.

“I have to thank my teammates and the coaches,” Byrd said. “They did a great job at halftime getting on me the right way, telling me to stay in the game, that they need me.”

First half: 16 minutes, zero points, minus-16 when he was on the floor.

Second half: 17 minutes, 13 points, plus-21.

This isn’t the only time the 6-foot-7 sophomore guard has had to reinvent himself at halftime. In the four games since his 25-point, six-rebound, seven-steal outburst against Colorado State and NBA prospect Nique Clifford, Byrd’s splits have been crazy.

First half: 1.0 points, 2 of 17 shooting (0-8 on 3s).

Second half: 12.0 points, 42.9% shooting (39.1% on 3s).

“It’s easy to stay composed when everything is going your way,” Byrd said. “It’s the opposite, for me, staying with it in the first half, trying to fight through frustration. A lot of teams in the league are starting to play me really physical. It’s led me to getting off to really slow starts the past few games. For me, I’ve just got to stay with it.”

His off-the-court world is changing, too. He’s been mentioned in mock NBA Drafts, some as high as the late first round, and he spent the last few weeks interviewing (and choosing) an agent. That’s a lot on the plate of a 20-year-old who hadn’t started a college basketball game before November.

“He’s such a good player, he’s such good person, I don’t see it affecting him,” Dutcher said. “He’s just a young player developing, and I think that’s more of it than distractions or NBA talk or agent talk. … But you have to have nights like this, where you can go back and show him on tape: ‘Miles, as good as you are, you’re the top guy in the scouting report now, so you’re going to draw two and three defenders.’”

What triggered Dutcher was Byrd’s impatience in the first half, driving into the teeth of the defense early in the shot clock instead of moving the ball and waiting for it to come back to him.

“I used to have that talk with Jalen McDaniels,” Dutcher said of the 6-foot-9 forward who, like Byrd, redshirted as a freshman. “When he went from a role player to the star player, they started doubling him. I told him, ‘Now you have to become a player. You have to get others involved, pass the ball, and it will find its way back to you.’

“And he went on to play in the NBA. Miles can be the same guy.”

2. Shout out

The way post-game news conferences usually end, there’s an awkward pause and the media relations coordinator asks if there are any more questions, then dismisses the players.

Before he could Tuesday night, Byrd raised his hand: “I’ve got one more thing.”

“Shout out to (Miles) Heide,” Byrd said. “For Heide to step up for an injured Jared (Coleman-Jones) today and lead the team in plus/minus, that’s really big. I’m proud of how he played tonight.”

It was an ode to the team’s unsung hero in its last two games, a 6-10 sophomore who scored just seven points in 47 minutes but provided the lift the team needed for two wins.

Besides Magoon Gwath, Heide was seemingly the only guy who could grab a rebound at Nevada, finishing with six. Against San Jose State, he started in place of Coleman-Jones, out with a shoulder injury, and finished five points and four rebounds in a career-high 27 minutes while holding Spartans starting center Robert Vaihola to no points (and no shots) in 30 minutes, the first time in 47 games he’s gone scoreless.

In the past two games, the Aztecs are plus-28 points with Heide on the floor.

“That’s my roommate,” Gwath said proudly. “I remember one play where there was an offensive rebound with two guys (around him), and he tipped me the ball for a free dunk. I love playing with him.”

It seems to be a universal sentiment.

“I just think this team has a sense for people,” Dutcher said. “They know this is a good boost for Miles’ confidence, and they want Miles confident. They believe in him. They want him to believe in himself more.

“It’s the kids I have in the program. They’re quick to compliment others, not brag about themselves. They’re trying to uplift a teammate in Heide and try to make him feel better about himself, more confident. They know a more confident Miles will mean better wins for us down the road.”

3. Seeing red

Used to be, SDSU wore white uniforms at home and either all black or all red on the road. That stopped in 2015-16 after a string of, how shall we put it, eerily miserable performances in the reds and a growing belief that they might somehow be cursed.

“We want our players in uniforms they want to wear,” Matt Soria, the program’s director of basketball operations, told the Union-Tribune before the 2015-16 season.

The reds returned in 2019 for what seemed like an innocuous December game at Viejas Arena against a San Jose State team coming off a 1-17 conference season and ranked 332nd in the Kenpom metric. Malachi Flynn had to make a step-back 3 over three defenders to salvage a 59-57 win and preserve SDSU’s undefeated record.

The reds disappeared again for five years, only to return this season for three games. All were wins, but the Aztecs underperformed in all three — badly in two of them — that cost them a combined 13 spots in the Kenpom metric.

The overtime win last week at Air Force on Wayne McKinney III’s buzzer-beater that averted arguably the program’s worst loss in three decades? Red uniforms.

Tuesday’s win after trailing by 21 points in the first half and 16 inside 13 minutes to go? Reds, again.

“We’re trying to break the curse,” Byrd said, laughing.

For those who don’t subscribe to a correlation between uniform color and on-court performance, let’s revisit recent history. The overall record is good — 20-5 — in the last 15 years, but that includes several dangerously close calls against unfancied opponents and several wrenching defeats.

Colorado State 77, SDSU 60 (Jan. 28, 2012): The No. 13-ranked Aztecs shoot 31.3% in Fort Collins and suffer their most lopsided loss in 91 games.

Arizona 68, SDSU 67 (Dec. 25, 2012): Chase Tapley has a layup blocked with 2.8 seconds left in the final of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.

UNLV 72, SDSU 70 (Feb. 16, 2013): Jamaal Franklin is whistled for traveling with, you guessed it, 2.8 seconds left in a one-point game in Las Vegas.

Wyoming 68, SDSU 62 (Feb. 11, 2014): The Cowboys shoot 59.7% and snap a 20-game win streak by the No. 5-ranked Aztecs.

Washington 49, SDSU 36 (Dec. 7, 2014): The Aztecs shoot 20.4% (11 of 54) in Seattle and break the Division I school record for fewest points in a game.

“We’re not as superstitious as the past few years,” Byrd said. “You’ve got a whole new team. There aren’t really traditions or superstitions to keep. For us, we see red jerseys, it’s something different than whites or blacks. We kind of like showing off the new jerseys. But yeah, shoot, one day we’ll be able to get one done convincingly with the reds on.”

They’ll have to wait to tempt fate again. Tuesday was the last time they’re scheduled to wear red this season.