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[saffron]

The pronunciation of 'u' is almost the same as 'oo' in loop. However, in most of the cases it is even shorter like 'oo' in look. But in look, 'oo' has an accent, unlike 'u' in many of the Turkish words. So maybe the best thing to do is to find a way between loop and look.
This letter or vowel is read only as defined above. In no case it changes like the 'u'in 'utter'. So whenever you see 'u' in a Turkish word, just remember 'oo' but nothing else.
The Turkish 'u' shouldn't be confused with the 'u' in, let's say, mutual, mute, tube -except for American 'tube'. If I write them in the way I hear by using the Turkish alphabet, I would write them as 'myutyual', 'myute', 'tyube' etc.
In Turkish there are many words ending with 'u' which can serve as a suffix, alone or together with 'l': -lu. Example: 'kokulu' : scented, like in 'kokulu mum': scented candle. Hoş kokulu: smelling nice; kötü/pis kokulu: smelling bad.
The words ending with 'u' may present a difficulty for learners..When it is at the end, it never takes an additional sound: Please dont read it as 'crew', drew, etc, but just try to say 'oo' again, even if it is at the end..You can try to repeat these syllables: lu, ku, mu, su, cu , to be more comfortable with the Turkish words..