I have no doubt that Augustus doesn't have the best practice habits in the world. But he was practicing hard enough to start the first 10 or however many games he started. Did he all the sudden start practicing differently in mid-season? The answer is no.
It was clear to me that Stans was doing some things wrong in the pre-conference schedule. Mainly playing a half-court tempo while rotating 12 players. Going to the 4 guard lineup corrected a lot of the problems. Augustus was not one of the problems, but ended up losing all of his minutes. Looking back, it's easy to see that our improved play was a result of an easier first half SEC schedule, Bost's improvement, shortening of the rotation, and playing up-tempo. It wasn't a result of benching Augustus.
One other point, Phil Turner's minutes don't have to suffer because Augustus has emerged. Phil could rest Stewart, Ravern, and even Bost. Stans hasn't figured that out yet.