Depth has been the main strength of the Florida State men’s basketball program of late.

Unfortunately for them, they don’t have much of it to start the 2022-23 season.

That was too much to overcome for the Seminoles in their season opener Monday night as FSU fell 83-74 to Stetson in front of a crowd of 6,729 fans at the Tucker Civic Center.

The loss, which came in a game FSU (0-1) was favored to win by 18 points, is FSU’s first loss to Stetson since 1975. It’s FSU’s first home loss to the in-state Hatters since 1953, snapping a streak of 24 straight home victories over Stetson.

"We had some moments where I thought we showed some life but I think it was just the fact that you don’t ever want to say inexperience, but this is probably the most inexperienced team that we’ve had," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "And I think we showed that tonight. I think we showed the inability to be consistent on the floor."

With five players unavailable due to injury or suspension, FSU was left with just eight available scholarship players.

The Hatters (1-0) showed no mercy, building an early lead of as much as 18 points in the middle of the first half. The Seminoles cut the deficit to seven points at halftime and as little as three points in the closing minutes.

They were never able to get all the way back over the hump, however, and Stetson led for the final 31:48 of the game. And the Hatters closed the game on a 10-5 run to make it look far less competitive than it was for the majority of the second half.

"Right now we got to find a way to accelerate the learning process," Hamilton said. "We got to find a way to overcome the first-game jitters or whatever that is that you have to adjust to. And we are capable. I always say the true test of your character is how you handle adversity."

Sophomore guard Matthew Cleveland led the Seminoles with 16 points, one of four FSU players in double digits.

Stetson reserve guard Luke Brown went off in his first game with the program after transferring from Ball State. He had 20 first-half points and finished with 27 points on 7 of 11 three-point shooting.

The loss showed many of the ways that it was feared FSU would miss having NCAA-suspended freshman Baba Miller and Brown transfer forward Jaylan Gainey (knee) available for the start of the season.

The loss is the Seminoles’ first home-opening loss since the 2012-13 season.

"I didn’t see anything that’s not fixable. Hopefully we will learn that every team that we play, like Stetson, will be giving you their very, very best," Hamilton said. "It’s a big adjustment for a lot of our players because we are kind of standing on some shoulders of guys who have established the style of play and a legacy, a system of executing offensively and defensively that they’re still learning and growing to learn to appreciate.

With such a narrow margin of defeat, it’s easy to look back at the simple things as the reason for a loss.

In this loss, one of the reasons was evident. FSU squandered chance after chance at the free-throw line.

While the Seminoles shot nearly twice as many free throws as the Hatters, they were far less efficient from the charity stripe. Stetson shot 68.6% from the line (11 of 16) while FSU was at 51.9%, missing 13 of its 27 free throws.

Of the eight Seminoles who played, freshman guard Tom House was the only Seminole who made all of his free throws (3 for 3). Cleveland was 4 for 7, Jalen Warley was 2 for 5. Even Caleb Mills, a very high-percentage free-throw shooter last season, was 2 for 4.

It was a team effort of brutality. And it proved very costly in a game that was a four-point game with less than four minutes left.

With the depth so depleted and only two true bigs available, defensive rebounding was a major issue for the Seminoles. Stetson, whose tallest starter is listed at 6-foot-8, dominated the glass at both ends of the court, outrebounding FSU 38-35.

The Hatters had 14 offensive rebounds and turned those into 15 second-chance points.

Even starting center Naheem McLeod, the only FSU available experienced big on the roster, wasn’t effective when he was on the court. McLeod was just 1 of 5 from the floor and had just two rebounds in 10 minutes, playing sparingly in the second half.

This also extended into Stetson’s scoring in the paint. While the Hatters built their sizable first-half lead behind a strong 11 of 23 (47.8%) showing from three, they maintained it in the second half and held off the Seminoles’ surges by attacking the basket.

While FSU had 34 points in the paint to Stetson’s 30, the Hatters had far too many relatively easy baskets inside.

FSU will look to rebound Friday in its first road game of the season at UCF.

"We've got to be hopeful that the lack of things that we did not execute tonight that we’ll learn from this and we’ll be much better prepared when we go down to Central Florida on Friday night," Hamilton said.